REMAINS OF SANNAI MARUYAMA

Sannai Maruyama is an archaeological site demonstrating the techniques of architecture (reconstructed monument frameworks), civil engineering (12-meter-wide road), pottery, canvas and lacquering dating back to the Jōmon period (10,500 to 400 BC). This is the remains of a community of around 400 inhabitants, who lived here between 3900 and 2200 BC. A very large central building housed 400 people for meetings. Given that objects from other regions of Japan, as well as from the east coast of Russia, were found at Sannai Maruyama, it would seem that this building was once a large covered market. Not far from the building, you can see the six columns, each over a metre in diameter, of an edifice whose purpose is still unknown. On the day of the winter solstice, the orientation of the building corresponds exactly to sunrise, and would seem to testify to a cult of the sun (one might be tempted to compare this with the rocks at Stonehenge, which indicate the summer solstice). With the exception of the Sannai Maruyama and Chikamori sites (Kanazawa region), many of the remains are buried beneath areas that are now inhabited. The staple diet was provided by various types of berries and nuts, and forests with this type of vegetation were planted around villages. The discovery of bowls shows that the inhabitants boiled soups of mountain vegetables, fish and seaweed.