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Japan

Yoshinogari site

Ancient Japan · Japan

Field notes

civilizations: Ancient Japan
types: Village
built: 400 BCE
occupied: 400 BCE — 300 CE
country: Japan

The site

Yoshinogari is a large, complex Yayoi-period settlement in Saga Prefecture on Japan's southern island of Kyushu. This ancient village grew into a moated, palisaded citadel complete with watchtowers and burial mounds, occupied for roughly seven centuries. Once dated by pottery seriation, radiocarbon analysis now pushes its earliest layers back before 400 BCE, making it a key window onto early agricultural Japan.

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