EA-ISHIHARA-HERA-001 - archaeological find
Ishihara site large hera-shaped pendant
Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan; Ishihara site - East Asia
Function not recorded Candidate only
ヘラ状垂飾 Japanese
Source term: ヘラ状垂飾; hera-shaped pendant; spatula-shaped pendant
ヘラ状垂飾 (hera-jō suishoku): 'spatula-shaped pendant'
Twin oblique scars, raked to almost 45 degrees, are worn into both faces of this serpentinite blade around its suspension hole — the signature it shares with four other oversized pendants from the Kanto and Gunma hills. That wear is what invites the bullroarer comparison; the archaeologist who studied the group read it otherwise, as a cord held taut with the blade pressed against the body, marking a waist ornament worn day to day and cut from green stone carried in from afar, probably a personal badge. Alone among the five, the Yokohama piece was never laid in a burial pit.
- Object
- ヘラ状垂飾; hera-shaped pendant; spatula-shaped pendant. Specimens/count: one of five large serpentinite examples in Kanto/Gunma cluster. Material: serpentinite. Dimensions: over 10 cm class; exact dimensions need original report. Perforation: upper perforation; near-45-degree oblique wear on both faces around perforation. Context: archaeological find; Kanagawa source says Ishihara is the only one in the five-object group not from a pit. Date: late Early to initial Middle Jōmon, ~6000–5000 cal BP (cluster attribution).
- Function
- Published as a hera-shaped pendant within the five-object Kanto/Gunma cluster; carries the same bilateral oblique wear, without the secure pit context of its four companions.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Approximate locality or municipality/site-cluster anchor from the local dossier; refine before public release.
- Source location
- Kanagawa 2024 lecture PDF Fig. 2 cluster summary