REKIHAKU

No.139 A Witness to History

Do they portray females only? - Stone figurines from Kamikuroiwa

There are 13 stone figurines that have been excavated from the Kamikuroiwa Site. Although we know of many other relics from the same period, similar stone figurines have not been found anywhere else.

These stone figurines are small, natural cylindrical stones that have been shaped to portray the human form. Hair, breasts and a straw skirt are engraved on the front, while an anus is engraved on the back. Breasts are seen on some of these, two of which are clearly female, although it is impossible to determine the gender of those without breasts engraved in the stone. There are stone figurines without breasts that have a large upper body and others with a slender upper body, and the outline of the figurine is not necessarily female. Consequently, theories have been put forward suggesting that these are the figurines of young girls or men. However, this is a question that cannot be resolved no matter how long one looks at the Kamikuroiwa stone figurines.

The Kamikuroiwa stone figurines date back approximately 15,000 years, which coincides with the Madeleine period of European Stone Age. In other words, it is safe to say that the Kamikuroiwa stone figurines are from the Paleolithic era which had earthenware. The Kamikuroiwa stone figurines should be compared to Paleolithic figurines of Venus made from ivory and other materials. We may regard all of the figurines of Venus distributed between France and Russia as female from their clear portrayal of female genitalia. It is precisely because of this that they are known by the generic name "Venus."

Let us take a look at Venus figurines found in Gönnersdorf, Germany and Mal'ta in Siberia. The Gönnersdorf Venus figurines have a fairly simplified form, and though they have small breasts they have little else. However, since they share triangular-shaped buttocks, we may view this as part of an evolving form. The same could also be said of the Venuses from Mal'ta. We can reasonably trace the change from those exhibiting breasts to those that do not show breasts.

In this way, the absence or presence of breasts on a Venus figurine from the Paleolithic era is not an element that distinguishes male from female. It follows that in the case of the Kamikuroiwa stone figurines as well, it is possible that they portray females, though the shape of the stone or the absence or presence of breasts has no relation to this.

Because both figurines shown in the photographs were excavated from Zone D, Layer IX, it is possible that stone figurines with breasts co-existed contemporaneously with stone figurines without breasts. However, I believe that the latter are a degenerate form of the former.

Dogu (clay figures) appeared after this time in the Japanese archipelago. The earliest of these include some with breasts and some without. They were made by making a separate head, upper body and lower body, which were joined with a narrow rod to form the completed object.

There are various theories about the purpose of these Venus figurines from the Paleolithic era. While according to one theory they are symbols of human reproduction or a type of talisman, others place them as guardian deities of the family and maternal ancestral deities of tribes and consanguineous groups.

I wonder how the people of Kamikuroiwa used these palm-sized small Venus figurines measuring all of 4 cm in length?

Fig. 1: Stone figurine with engraved hair, breasts and straw skirt excavated from Zone D, Layer IX. Length: 4.5 cm, Width: 2.3 cm, Depth: 0.5 cm	Fig. 2: Stone figurine engraved with only long hair. Length: 4.4 cm, depth: 0.5 cm
	Fig. 3: Venus figurines with breasts and without breasts. Nos. 1 zzz 2 are from Gönnersdorf, Germany and 3 & 4 are from Mal'ta in Siberia.

(Hideji Harunari : Japanese Archaeology, Research Department)

Earthenware and stoneware from Kamikuroiwa - From the findings of collaborative research

Many of the materials excavated from the Kamikuroiwa Site are housed either in the Kamikuroiwa Site Archaeology Museum in Kumakogen-cho or in the Department of Archaeology and Ethnology, Faculty of Letters, Keio University, though there are some in the collection of the National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku). At Rekihaku we took the opportunity provided by undertaking a survey of the materials in our collection to reorganize all materials from the Kamikuroiwa Site. This survey is currently yielding results.

Groups of more than several items of ridge-patterned earthenware were excavated from the Kamikuroiwa Site. The largely similar technique used to make this pattern suggests that they date from more or less the same period (Fig. 5). When the Kamikuroiwa Site was first discovered it was believed that the items of ridge-patterned earthenware were the oldest examples of earthenware from the Japanese archipelago. However, as a result of the recent discovery of plain earthenware among a collection of older earthenware it is now certain the earthenware dates back to the Late Paleolithic era. An old form of ridge pattern earthenware has been discovered that has either one or two ridges encircling each piece, and these discoveries have gradually shed light on the nature of the time when earthenware was first made in Japan. A further examination of earthenware from the Kamikuroiwa Site has revealed that a bean-shaped attachment (Fig. 4, left) was also part of a short ridge. Similar ridge pattern earthenware has been found in the Hanamiyama Site in Kanagawa Prefecture. This tells us that they constitute a middle stage signifying a new period in old stage ridge pattern earthenware. There are clusters of earthenware with regional characteristics, such as those that make heavy use of vertical ridges and others with raised lines on the inside of the rim. We are able, therefore, to classify this cluster of earthenware as belonging to the Kamikuroiwa style. These items are also known by the scientific name of Kamikuroiwa Type I.

Numerous clusters of stoneware have also been excavated from the Kamikuroiwa Site.

According to Mr. Michinosuke Suzuki, who previously classified stoneware from Kamikuroiwa, pointed stoneware (Fig. 5 and 6) was excavated alongside ridge pattern earthenware in Layer IX and a stone arrowhead was found alongside earthenware with a pressed pattern in Layer IV. These discoveries tell us of the changes that took place from the Paleolithic era to the Jomon period when the spearhead evolved into a pilum (heavy javelin) and then a bow and arrow. In the course of this collaborative research (refer to the article by Mr. Watanuki in this edition) we discovered a stone arrowhead from Layer IX as well, which has led us to believe that use of the bow and arrow dates back to the ridge pattern stage.

Previous investigations have found that pointed stoneware from Kamikuroiwa were up to 5 cm long, and unfinished items believed to correspond to this stoneware are of virtually the same length (4 cm to 6 cm) and depth. The pointed stoneware shown in Fig. 6 were made into heads by sharpening the middle section up to the tip first using pressure flaking, while the base was left as a half round giving it the shape of a water droplet. During this recent collaborative research the roughness of the secondary processing and the low level of finishing led us to determine that these were unfinished objects.

Earlier investigations found that these unfinished items shaped like water droplets corresponded to some items known as "anninkei sentoki" and "mokuyokei sentoki". However, if they are unfinished items, we can expect that this research will show that they can provide some clues on the process of making pointed stoneware, which had been previously unclear.

Fig. 4: Ridge pattern earthenware excavated from Layer IX	Fig. 5: Pointed stoneware excavated from Layer IX
	Fig. 6: Pointed stoneware excavated from Zones B & C, Layer IX

(Ken'ichi Kobayashi : Japanese Prehistorical Archaeology, Research Department)

Whetstone from Kamikuroiwa

An oblong whetstone with a groove made from coarsely grained sandstone was found among stoneware excavated from Kamikuroiwa. Although it appears that there had originally been two grooves, the whetstone was broken along the line of one of the grooves so that only one complete groove remained.

A type of whetstone called "yagara kenmaki" existed only during the Incipient Jomon period. It is a tool consisting of two semi-cylindrical stones in which a groove was incised in the flat surface for use when making arrows from tree branches. A bent branch was placed between the two stones and pulled at both ends to straighten the branch. Although the whetstone found at Kamikuroiwa is different from this type, it was found in Layer IX along with pointed stoneware, that is, a stone arrow-head with a stem, which places it at the time when the bow and arrow existed. However, since there is no guarantee that the "yagara kenmaki" was used to grind arrows as suggested by its name, it is also possible that it was used to grind animal bones and horns.

Grindstone excavated from Zone D, Layer IX Length: 7.6 cm, Width: 3.5 cm, Depth: 2.1 cm

(Hideji Harunari)