Aoya-Kamijichi — the Yayoi village of the preserved brains

photo by Saigen Jiro · CC0

photo by Saigen Jiro · CC0

Three Yayoi brains were found in the village moat, the only ones ever discovered in Japan: DNA has reconstructed their faces.

A Yayoi-period port settlement overlooking the Sea of Japan, a hub of trade that brought bronze mirrors and artefacts from China and the Korean Peninsula. In the eastern moat of the village over 100 skeletons from the late Yayoi period were recovered, 110 of them with signs of fatal wounds (the most direct evidence of armed conflict in the period anywhere in Japan), together with two cases of spinal tuberculosis, the oldest documented in the archipelago. The same layer yielded three human brains preserved in the mud, never found anywhere else in Japan: analysis of the mitochondrial DNA made it possible to reconstruct the faces of those three Yayoi people. The finds also include a fir-wood shield with traces of green pigment, the oldest example of that colour in East Asia, and 35 fossilised coprolites, an exceptional quantity for the period.

Historic site designated at national level in 2008 (史跡), which has yielded over 1,300 finds classified as national Important Cultural Property, displayed in the park's dedicated building. The park around it, in the municipality of Tottori (Aoya neighbourhood), reconstructs the village with a Yayoi square and an educational wing.

ℹ️ Open 9:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30), closed on the fourth Monday of the month and over the year-end and New Year period. Entry to the park and the educational wing is free; the Important Cultural Properties building costs 200 yen per person (150 yen for groups of 20 or more), free for children and students (card required for university students). About 15 minutes on foot, or 5 by taxi, from JR Aoya Station; by car, Aoya exit of the San'in Expressway.

🚉 Aoya · 17 min walk

Sources: aoya-kamijichi.jp · aoya-kamijichi.jp · ja.wikipedia.org

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