Teraji Okayama Settlement
Teraji Yayoi Site · Okayama Teraji
Yayoi Early 300 BCE → Middle Yayoi 300 CE·Yayoi Sanyo — Ongagawa Yayoi with Mumun immigration·🇯🇵 Japan, Chugoku, Okayama Prefecture, Okayama City, Teraji plateau at Ashimori River (Yoshii tributary) southern Chugoku, Sanyo region, Japan
About
About Teraji Okayama Settlement
Teraji Okayama Settlement — Yayoi moated paddy village (300 BCE–300 CE) on Ashimori River terrace 15 km west Okayama, Sanyo Inland Sea plain, excavated 1990s. Teraji revealed double moat (outer 200 m, inner 80 m), raised-floor granary posts, Yayoi Ongagawa pottery with rice phytoliths, carbonized rice, and Korean Mumun–Yayoi bronze (Korean-style slender socketed celt fragments) indicating immigration. Sanyo’s earliest Yayoi paddies with irrigation channel (2 km) from Ashimori prove Mumun migration to Sanyo. Burials with Yayoi jar coffins outside moat.
Why it mattersSanyo earliest Yayoi moated paddy — double moat and Mumun bronze linking Korea to Okayama
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Single Mumun migration vs continuous infusion?
Theories
- 01Sanyo channel as Korean–Yayoi transmission artery
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.300 BCE Yayoi Ongagawa foundation
- Period
- Yayoi Early 300 BCE → Middle Yayoi 300 CE
- Culture
- Yayoi Sanyo — Ongagawa Yayoi with Mumun immigration
- Builders
- Yayoi rice immigrants from Korean Mumun tradition
- Purpose
- Moated paddy farming hamlet documenting Sanyo Yayoi immigration and paddy technology
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.300 BCE
Yayoi immigrants dig double moat and channel
c.100 CE
Ongagawa paddy fluorescence with granaries
1990s
Board moat and paddy excavation
On the ground
Structures & features
34.6600° N · 133.8500° E · 18 m · 2 mapped features
Outer Double Moat and Palisade
moat200-m outer double moat with palisade trench encircling paddy hamlet
34.6605° N · 133.8505° EInner Granary and Paddy Channel
granaryRaised-floor granary posts and 2-km paddy irrigation channel on eastern terrace
34.6595° N · 133.8495° E