EA-KURAWA-001 - archaeological find
Kurawa site
Kurawa site, Hachijo Island, Tokyo, Japan - East Asia
Function not recorded Candidate only
ヘラ状垂飾 Japanese
Source term: ヘラ状垂飾; 棒状垂飾; hera-shaped pendant; rod pendant; spatula-shaped pendant
ヘラ状垂飾 (hera-jō suishoku): 'spatula-shaped pendant'
On Hachijōjima, three hundred kilometres of open water south of Honshu, the Kurawa site produced burials among its Jōmon houses — and by the back of the skull of an adult woman lay two long stone rods, each pierced through the top. Fujita Fujio made pieces like these the type specimens of his 'hera-shaped pendant' class and read them as hairpin-like hair ornaments, an interpretation the burial position supports handsomely. The atlas includes Kurawa as the strongest ornament-reading control in the Japanese series: here, for once, the context argues the published function. That the stone appears to belong to the hard-jade group, ferried to a volcanic island far from any source, marks the objects as valued; what they were valued as, this grave actually answers.
- Object
- ヘラ状垂飾; 棒状垂飾; hera-shaped pendant; rod pendant; spatula-shaped pendant. Specimens/count: quantity unknown; listed among ornament assemblage; Figure 5 context plate includes rod/hera-like pendants 42-43. Material: stone material unverified; J-Stage context mentions hard-jade-group stone for rod pendants. Dimensions: unverified; objects 42-43 shown with 5 cm scale but exact measurements not extracted. Perforation: upper holes visible on rod-like pendants in current Figure 5 context crop; exact `ヘラ状垂飾` identity still needs report confirmation. Context: Jomon settlement with dwellings/pits and human remains; Aomori Figure 5 text says the two rod pendants 42-43 were found near the occipital region of an adult woman. Date: terminal Early to initial Middle Jōmon, ~5000 14C BP (~5700 cal BP).
- Function
- Rod/hera-shaped pendants read by Fujita as hairpin-like hair ornaments — a reading the Kurawa burial position, at the occiput of an adult woman, directly supports; kept as the ornament-baseline control for the Japanese lane.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Approximate locality or municipality/site-cluster anchor from the local dossier; refine before public release.
- Source location
- Aomori research bulletin no. 4 Fig. 5 objects 42-43