Toro is a rice-agricultural site representative of the Yayoi period, located near the center of the Shizuoka plain, in the city of Shizuoka, Shizuoka prefecture. Discovered in the midst of the Pacific War, in the immediate postwar periodan interdisciplinary archaeological investigation was conducted over a four-year period, involving researchers in architecture, geography, and the natural sciences in addition to archaeologists. This organized excavation was the starting point for modern Japanese archaeology, and served as the occasion for the establishment of the Japanese Archaeological Association.
As a result of that investigation, the remains of a Late Yayoi village were discovered, composed of twelve houses and two storehouses, plus wet-rice fields of the same period extending to the south having irrigation channels and dikes with banks reinforced by wooden stakes, and in 1952 Toro was designated a Special Historic Monument for its importance in providing a concrete image of village life in the Yayoi period. In conjunction with the designation, it was converted into a historic park under the name of "Toro Park."
But over fifty years have passed since the excavation began in 1947, and many questions concerning the various features discovered at Toro and about the image of the Yayoi period provided by the site need to be addressed. To resolve these problems, an archaeological investigation including re-excavation has become necessary.
Accordingly, the Board of Education of the city of Shizuoka is conducting an excavation under a five-year plan spanning 1999 and 2003, with the intention of renovating the park based on the results. At present, the re-excavation is focused on the five house sites investigated between 1947 and 1950, with these remains being examined from the perspective of current archaeological understandings, and the make-up of the village being re-evaluated. The results thus far show that the site is in a good state of preservation, with its condition prior to flooding readily detected when the sand brought by the floods is removed. The areas of residence and production (the rice fields) were clearly divided by a water channel (partition ditch no.1) and its banks. In the residential area, from the stratigraphic evidence and relations of overlay between features, it has been determined that the archaeological features divide broadly into those of the lower strata (first half) and the upper strata (latter half), and each of these further divides into two phases (for a total of four phases) or more of change.The site was then buried with flood-borne sand and thus came once to an end, after which pillared buildings and ditch-like features were subsequently made before being buried a second time by a separate flood; it has thus become clear that the site underwent complex changes.
With regard to house sites, three more have been newly discovered, and in terms of their structure, ditches encircling the low earthen walls forming the house perimeters have been found, and the former interpretation that the circles of stakes, now seen as lying within the earthen walls, marked the outer extents of the dwellings has been revised.
For the wet-rice fields, small subdivisions within the larger fields have been found, made with simple dikes not reinforced with stakes.
In terms of other finds, in addition to artifacts such as Yayoi pottery, stone tools (including axes and net sinkers), wooden implements (vessels, architectural members, etc.), and metal objects (bronze bracelets, small bronze rings), there are also ecofacts such as carbonized rice, various seeds, shells, and so forth. For the pottery, correspondences with the sequence of changes exhibited by the features are beginning to be obtained. Also, a superbly crafted koto with a sounding box was recovered, and the image of Toro is gradually undergoing a major transformation.
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