Gunma burial site one of the oldest in Japan at 8,300 years

An adult skeleton with back hunched at the Jomon period site in Naganohara, Gunma Prefecture (Provided by Kokugakuin University’s archaeological lab)

Human remains dating to the Jomon Pottery Culture period (c. 8000 B.C.-300 B.C.) are among the oldest in Japan to have been given formal burial, researchers said.

A team from Kokugakuin University estimated the remains at the Iyaiiwakage site here to be 8,300 years old.

The estimate was based on a nearly complete adult skeleton discovered in a burial pit with knees bent and back hunched. The burial method, known as “kusso,” was common during the early Jomon period and subsequent years.

The burial site is located near the top of a slope by a river and protected from rain by a hollow in the lower part of a cliff.

Researchers believe humans first settled there and built a burial site around 15,000 years ago [...] The Asahi Shimbun / Link 2