The Department of Archaeology Faculty of Letters, The University of Tokyo
Abstract
東京大学考古学研究室は、福岡県八女市岩崎から出土した炭化米を所蔵している。この炭化米は、大正12 年に中山平次郎が採集して本研究室に寄贈したものである。本稿ではこの炭化米の植物形態学的研究と放射性炭素年代測定、炭素・窒素同位体比分析をおこなった。その結果、これらはほとんどが短粒の小型米という弥生後期以前の形態である可能性が示唆され、年代測定の結果と整合性を示し、中山の見通しの正しさが検証された。また、水稲である可能性が示唆された。The archaeology laboratory of the University of Tokyo possesses carbonized rice grains excavated from Iwasaki, Yame-shi, Fukuoka pref. This carbonized rice was collected by Heijirou Nakayama in 1923 and subsequently donated to the laboratory. In the following paper, a plant-ecological examination of these materials, together with a carbon-14 dating will be conducted in addition to a comparative analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes. The results of this paper indicate the possibility that almost all of the carbonized rice grains belong to a type of small, short-grain rice dating from before the late Yayoi period. The consistency of these findings in relation to the results of the carbon-14 dating is used to examine the validity of Nakayama\u27s predictions. Moreover, the possibility that these carbonized rice grains may have been a variation of wet rice is also suggested
