EA-MITSUGOSAWA-NAKA-HERA-001 - archaeological find
Mitsugosawa-naka site large hera-shaped pendant
Takasaki, Gunma, Japan; Mitsugosawa-naka site pit 75 - 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; report label 玉斧
ヘラ状垂飾 (hera-jō suishoku): 'spatula-shaped pendant'
Its excavation table called it a complete jade axe (玉斧) — but the serpentinite is barely thicker than a ruler, 7.5 millimetres and 62 grams, and a later specialist read the wear instead of the label. Around the single hole at its top, both faces carry the same oblique forty-five-degree scars that mark the whole Kantō cluster of five: not a cord chafing above a dangling weight, but a taut cord pressing the thin stone against the body. She judged it a waist-worn emblem of standing — rare imported stone, one owner. Whether it ever spoke as a bullroarer, no test has settled.
- Object
- ヘラ状垂飾; hera-shaped pendant; spatula-shaped pendant; report label 玉斧. Specimens/count: one original-report object: 75土-1 from the five-object Kanto/Gunma cluster. Material: serpentinite. Dimensions: 12.6 x 3.8 x 0.75 cm; 62 g. Perforation: upper terminal perforation visible in SiteReports Figure 194 and PL89; Kanto/Gunma synthesis reports near-45-degree oblique wear on both faces around perforation for the group. Context: 75号土坑 context in Mitsugosawa-naka report; one of the Kanto/Gunma large serpentinite examples. Date: late Early to initial Middle Jōmon, ~6000–5000 cal BP (cluster attribution; pit 75 not individually phased).
- Function
- Listed as a complete 'jade axe' (玉斧) in its excavation report and regrouped as a hera-shaped pendant by the later synthesis — two published labels in tension; the atlas adds its measured, blade-thin proportions to the question.
- Map confidence
- low_medium - Approximate locality or municipality/site-cluster anchor from the local dossier; refine before public release.
- Source location
- SiteReports 29003 Fig. 194, PL89, table row 75-do-1