REMAINS OF SANNAI MARUYAMA

Sannai Maruyama is an archaeological site that shows the techniques of architecture (reconstructed monument framework), civil engineering (15 m wide road), pottery, canvas and lacquering dating from the Jōmon period (10,500 to 400 BCE). It is the remains of a community of about 400 inhabitants, who lived in this place between 3,500 and 2,000 BC. A very large central building was used to house 400 people for meetings. Since objects from other parts of Japan, as well as from the east coast of Russia, were found at Sannai Maruyama, it would seem that this building was a large covered market. Not far from the building, one can see the six columns, each more than a meter in diameter, of a building whose purpose is still unknown. On the winter solstice, the orientation of the building corresponds exactly to the sunrise, and would seem to testify to a cult of the sun (one would be tempted to compare this to the rocks of Stone Hendge, which indicate the summer solstice). Many of the remains are buried under areas that are now inhabited, with the exception of the Sannai Maruyama and Chikamori sites (Kanazawa region). The staple diet was provided by various kinds of berries and nuts, and forests with this type of vegetation were planted around the villages. The discovery of bowls shows that the inhabitants boiled soups of mountain vegetables, fish and seaweed.