Nabatake (Saga)
Nabatake Site · Nabatake Yayoi Paddy
Jomon Final 1000 BCE → Yayoi Incipient 930–600 BCE → Yayoi Early 600 BCE–100 CE·Jomon–Yayoi rice transition (Saga plain)·🇯🇵 Saga Prefecture, Karatsu City, on alluvial plain near Matsuura River (Saga plain Yayoi paddy zone east of Hamanomachi), Japan
Wikipedia contributors · CC (see file page)
About
About Nabatake (Saga)
Contender for Japan's earliest paddy fields (c.930–600 BCE Early Yayoi incipient rice with carbonized rice husk and ard-marks) at Nabatake near Karatsu — waterlogged peat with rice phytoliths, wooden agricultural tools and carbonized barnyard millet co-intensified, excavated 1970s by K. Tsuboi. Nabatake is arch rival to Itatsuke (Fukuoka) for 'first rice' debate: soil micromorphology shows paddy bunds 2×1.5 m with wooden edging, C14 on rice 930 BCE challenges Korean Liaodong influx model vs Jomon-nativist adoption; understory links to Yoshinogari antecedent.
Why it mattersJapan's 'first rice' arch rival to Itatsuke — 930 BCE claim resets Yayoi inception from Korean import to Jomon-adoption.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Is 930 BCE rice truly paddy or rain-fed upland scattered?
Theories
- 01Saga plain Jomon–Yayoi continuity not immigrant rupture; rice adoption via exchange not migration
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.930 BCE Incipient rice paddy; field system c.600 BCE
- Period
- Jomon Final 1000 BCE → Yayoi Incipient 930–600 BCE → Yayoi Early 600 BCE–100 CE
- Culture
- Jomon–Yayoi rice transition (Saga plain)
- Builders
- Late Jomon fisher–farmers transitioning to Yayoi paddy rice
- Purpose
- Earliest paddy trial field and Jomon-to-Yayoi transition anchor on Saga coastal plain
- Abandoned
- Merged into Saga plain Yayoi town network c.100 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1972 Karatsu construction exposes peat; 1978 Tsuboi reports C14 930 BCE rice
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.930–790 BCE
Rice husk and ard-marks on bunds; phytolith paddy inception
c.600–400 BCE
Systematic paddy 2×1.5 m bunds with wooden edging
1972–78
Nabatake C14 claim triggers Itatsuke vs Nabatake 'oldest Japan rice' polemic
On the ground
Structures & features
33.4500° N · 129.9700° E · 15 m · 2 mapped features
- Peat Preserved Paddy Bunds (2×1.5 m) with Rice HuskagriculturalWaterlogged paddy bunds 2×1.5 m with carbonized rice husk and phytolith opal in peat33.4505° N · 129.9705° E
- Tool Scatter with Wooden Ard and Millet HorizonindustrialTool concentration with wooden ard share and barnyard millet layer below rice33.4495° N · 129.9695° E
Gallery