The Ikego area has a very interesting and enlightening history.
This history explains the reason for the incredible amount and variety, as well as
the excellent condition, of the many archeological treasures found there.
Prior to 1937, the area was an ammunitions storehouse operating under the Japanese
Imperial Navy. After the conclusion of World War II, however, the area was put under U.S.
Navy control. In 1980, a plan for construction of Ikego area U.S. Navy family housing was
announced. In preparation for this construction, archeological sampling research began in
December 1987. Actual archaeological research, by the Kanagawa Prefectural Archaeology
Center and the Kanagawa Archaeological Foundation, took place over a five and one-half
period from April 1988 to October 1994.
Since the Ikego area was virtually closed to public access for nearly seventy
years prior to the sampling research, little was known about the remains of the
archeological treasures buried there. When research proved more bountiful than expected,
the research area was enlarged from twenty to thirty acres. During the five and one-half
year research period, more than 4,000 cases of artifacts from the Jomon Period through the
Modern Age were discovered. The artifacts, in excellent condition because of protection
from human intervention for so many years, provided important data needed to understand the
previously unknown history of the area.
Zushi City is located in the southwest part of Kanagawa prefecture at the tip of the Sagami Bay, and is surrounded by hills on three sides. The westside of it borders on the old capital town Kamakura, the eastside does Yokosuka City.
Over 7,500 sites recorded in the Kanagawa prefecture, and more than 100 of them lie in Zushi City. Except for the Ikego sites, most sites in this city are situated on hills, not the law land of an alluvium.
The Ikego area of 710 ares, has been utilized by the U.S. Navy. Ironically, that was fortune for archaeologists, the Ikego sites remained against large land developments.
The following descriptions make it clear how the Ikego sites relate with those neighboring sites, and demonstrate by archaeological evidence the truth, or not, of the ancient literature on the subject.
Wood, one of the most important organic materials, has been used to make tools for as long as stone and bone. Indeed, organic materials rarely survive as they decay. These fragile materials, however, can be preserved under special conditions, such as very dry or wet ground.
In the Ikego case, these artifacts were in waterlogged areas where the soil compacted water between its layers. It created oxygen-free pockets for the preservation of these materials.
Plenty of wooden tools were excavated from the bottom of an old river. This discovery of the Ikego sites is the first and largest in the Kanagawa prefecture.
The Yayoi Period, extended from the Third Century B.C. to the Third Century A.D.,
was characterized by the development of a rice growing agriculture. About twenty-one hundred years ago, during the middle of this period, the Ikego area
became alive with a flurry of human activity. Research Site No.1-A was the most thriving
section of the city during that time. Area rice fields were located in low moist areas deep in the valley
and bottomland where no one had lived before. It is believed that this rice growing
agriculture introduced to the Japanese archipelago during the Yayoi period changed the
nature of the Japanese lifestyle forever.
A big river flowed throughout the southern part of the flattest area.
Its riverbed was filled with tons of artifacts from the Yayoi period. At the end of the
Yayoi Period, however, this river filled up with sand and mud, most likely from a violent
storm. The artifacts, trapped under and protected by this mud and sand, were excavated from
the old riverbed during the research.