EA-SANNAI-MARUYAMA-TANZAKU-001 - archaeological find

Sannai-Maruyama short-rectangular pendant lead

Aomori, Japan; Sannai-Maruyama site, Jomon - East Asia

Function not recorded Candidate only

Sannai-Maruyama produced a pair of flat serpentinite tablets — items 37 and 38 in an Aomori research bulletin — that the specialists could not comfortably name. They resemble the rod-shaped pendants of the slit-earring horizon in their single upper hole and elongated form, but both ends are broad and straight, so the bulletin coined a provisional label: tanzaku-gata, 'short-rectangular pendants,' after the paper strips poems are written on. Fujita Fujio, who named the related hera-shaped class, read such pieces as hairpin-like hair ornaments; the bulletin suggests these were pendants, perhaps worn as a set with the site's slit earrings. Cut from the same serpentinite as those earrings and — by figure scale — only three or four millimetres thick, the larger tablet is, in outline and section, as close to a miniature bullroarer as anything in the Jōmon record. Its exact phase is unknown even to its publishers, and no measurements have ever been printed.

仮りに「短冊形垂飾品」と呼称するが、棒状垂飾とは上部の1孔と細長い点が類似している。

I provisionally call them 'short-rectangular pendants'; they resemble the rod-pendants in their single upper hole and elongated form.

Aomori Prefectural Buried Cultural Property Center, Research Bulletin no. 4, on Fig. 4 items 37–38

Object

短冊形垂飾品; 石製垂飾品; rectangular/stone pendant; serpentinite pendant. Specimens/count: two short-rectangular pendant leads, numbered 37 and 38 in Aomori comparative article; Aomori Figure 4 crop now local; item 37 is the main B-watch morphology candidate and item 38 is a smaller companion/control; official Sanmaru comparanda 9530, 16110, 16111, and 16113 also visualized. Material: serpentinite for 37-38 per Aomori article; official Sanmaru object material to verify. Dimensions: Aomori Figure 4 includes a 5 cm scale. Figure-scale review estimates item 37 at roughly 7.0-7.4 cm long, max width about 2.8 cm, and thin section about 0.3-0.4 cm; item 38 at roughly 4.6 cm long and about 1.2-1.6 cm wide. These are review estimates only, not published measurements. Official Sanmaru object 9530 length 7.8 cm; 16110 length 4.1 cm; 16111 length 6.6 cm; 16113 length 5.3 cm. Perforation: Aomori Figure 4 crop shows upper single perforations and side/section views for 37-38; item 37 has a centered near-terminal hole and thin side/profile drawing; exact bore wear still unverified; official Sanmaru objects also show upper single perforations. Context: archaeological Sannai-Maruyama context; Figure 4/sourc…. Date: phase unresolved in the source; Sannai-Maruyama's occupation spans ~5900–4200 cal BP.

Function

Published only under a provisional name — 'short-rectangular pendants,' allied to Fujita's hairpin-ornament reading of the hera class; the naming difficulty itself marks the function as unresolved, which is where the atlas's whirred-blade question enters.

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. 4 items 37-38

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