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
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 Husk
agriculturalWaterlogged paddy bunds 2×1.5 m with carbonized rice husk and phytolith opal in peat
33.4505° N · 129.9705° ETool Scatter with Wooden Ard and Millet Horizon
industrialTool concentration with wooden ard share and barnyard millet layer below rice
33.4495° N · 129.9695° E