Ōzakai Cave Dwelling Site


Ōzakai Cave Dwelling is an archaeological site consisting of a cave dwelling in what is now part of the city of Himi, Toyama Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1986.

Overview

The site was discovered when a Shinto shrine was being renovated near the fishing port of Himi in 1918. With a large natural cave, a number of bones and pottery fragments were discovered and during a subsequent excavation by the Tokyo Imperial University, earthenware, ceramics, the bones of approximately 20 people and animal bones were found.
The cave has a depth of 35 meters, with an entrance 16 meters wide, and 8 meters high. The current floor is about 4 meters higher than the present sea level. The site was the first cave site in Japan and stratigraphic examination indicated that it had been occupied from the middle Jōmon period through the Kamakura period: