Kitakogane Shell Mound comprises the Jomon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaido and Northern Tohoku, listed on the candidate for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. Visit the Kitakogane Shell Mound Information Center to see real excavates, and then go outside to find reproduced shell mounds and remains of a water place.
The settlement comprises myriad features, including pit dwellings, graves, shell mounds, and a watering place. Countless sea shells (from common Orient clams, oysters, scallops, etc.), fish bones (from tuna, flounder, etc.) and marine mammal bones (from fur seals, whales, etc.) have been excavated from the shell mounds. These indicate the fishing-oriented livelihood that was pursued in the region.
The shell mounds and pit dwellings date from a time when the shoreline was changing due to marine transgressions and regressions, presenting a good example of the relationship between changes in the natural environment and people’s residential areas. A ritual place integrates a shell mound and a burial area where graves with human bones and the remains of rituals involving animals, such as the arranged cranial bones of deer, have been discovered.
Large numbers of pebble tools (grinding stones and milling basins) that are considered to have been used to crush nuts have been excavated from the remains of a watering place near a spring. Most of these were broken when found, indicating that the place was used as a ritual ground for the disposal of stone tools.
This component part is an archaeological site of a settlement accompanied by shell mounds dating from the first half of the development stage of sedentism. It is an important archaeological site that attests to a coastal livelihood, people’s adaptation to environmental changes such as marine transgressions and regressions, and a high degree of spirituality such as seen in rituals and ceremonies at the watering place and shell mounds.
References:The ancient Argos Theater was built in 320 BC. and is located in Argos, Greece against Larissa Hill. Nearby from this site is Agora, Roman Odeon, and the Baths of Argos. The theater is one of the largest architectural developments in Greece and was renovated in ca 120 AD.
The Hellenistic theater at Argos is cut into the hillside of the Larisa, with 90 steps up a steep incline, forming a narrow rectilinear cavea. Among the largest theaters in Greece, it held about 20,000 spectators and is divided by two landings into three horizontal sections. Staircases further divide the cavea into four cunei, corresponding to the tribes of Argos A high wall was erected to prevent unauthorized access into the theatron and may have helped the acoustics, but it is said the sound quality is still very good today.
Around 120 CE, both theaters were renovated in the Roman style.