Kusado Sengen
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Facilities of the town


Well constructed with timber

Wells

We found about two hundred of wells. The area in which wells were situated is judged to be a residential area. Inside the wells, there usually were walls constructed with timber, cobbles or ceramic jars. The most common type of well was which constructed with timber. Some wells were constructed with wooden tubs. Many of the wells had a bent-wood box in the bottom. Wells with a wall constructed with cobbles appeared in the fifteenth century, so these are supposed to be a new type of well. (Right: Well constructed with tinber)

Buildings

Structures of buildings were scarcely remained. We could find only traces of posts, so we have to reconstruct structures from the arrangement of posts. Two types of building structure can be distinguished. One is "post-hole type" whose superstructure was supported by pillars directly planted into the ground. The other is "base-stone type" whose superstructure was supported by pillars standing on base-stones. "Base-stone type" buildings remained were especially few, because the ground of the town had been leveled over and over, moreover many floods washed away the surface of the site.

Vestige of fences

Streets and alleys

The preservation of streets and alleys were usually bad in the same way as buildings. We have to suppose the location of them from the arrangement of other facilities such as ditches or fences. The exceptions were alleys paved with stone slabs found around the central part of the town. (Right: Vestige of fences)

Pits for garbage dumping

A lot of pits for garbage dumping were found in the site. The finds from those pits tell us what kinds of utensils were used and what kinds of food were eaten. It is noteworthy that a large amount of earthenware was discarded when garbage pits were buried. Since most of the earthenware did not retain the evidence of heavy use, it would be likely that the earthenware was used for rituals and discarded at once.


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suzuki-y@mars.dti.ne.jp
Copyright © 1996-1998 Yasuyuki Suzuki & Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of History, Fukuyama, Japan.
Last updated: June 10, 1998.