Abstract
This paper aims at reviewing the archaeological studies on red pigment in Japan in order to capture the attention in Korean archaeology. Although until now red pigment has not been regarded as major archaeological remain, recent studies are changing this situation. Considering this, the authors introduced the research result of colcothar in the Jomon period, and cinnabar in the Yayoi and Kofun period. Two sites belong to the Middle and Final Jomon in Nigata prefecture were selected for the research area. Samples of red pigments were collected not only from the archaeological remains but the natural resources around the sites. As a result, different procurement strategy for pigment is revealed, that is, they got colcothar much more far from their settlement in the Final Jomon, which indicates in this phase they gave higher value on the red pigment than earlier period. On the other hand, surfer stable isotope analysis reveals that the isotope ratio from Chinese and Japanese cinnabar are clearly distinguishable. About 40 sites belongs to the Yayoi and Kofun period were sampled for this analysis. As a result, the selection between Chinese/Japanese cinnabar is different in each region, which indicates the procurement of cinnabar was directly related to the local political units. As a whole, red pigments are very informative archaeological remains and it should be important to work on the Korean material.
| Translated title of the contribution | Review on the Archaeological Studies on Red Pigment in Japan |
|---|---|
| Original language | Other |
| Pages (from-to) | 103-121 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | The Journal of Korean Field Archaeology |
| Volume | 21 |
| Publication status | Published - 30 Nov 2014 |
Keywords
- Red pigment
- Colcothar
- Cinnabar
- the Jomon Period
- the Yayoi Period
- the Kofun Period