Mie #Gusuku is one of the forts defending the entrance of the harbour of Naha. Part of the stone wall on the river side is built atop an arch that straddles a crack on the bedrock. There are other cracks in the bedrock along the river and the wall just undulates to follow them, there is just this one place where no, it is necessary to build a straight wall, let's make an arch [...]
#EADays #EAD2026 #Okinawa #Archaeology
#gusuku — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #gusuku, aggregated by home.social.
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Mie #Gusuku est un des forts qui défendent l'entrée du port de Naha. une partie de la muraille coté rivière est construite au dessus d'une arche qui enjambe une indentation dans le calcaire de la roche mère. Il y a d'autres indentations dans la roche mère le long de la rivière et la muraille ondule juste pour les suivre, il y a juste un endroit où non, décidément, il est nécessaire de construire une muraille droite, faisons une arche [...]
#JEArchéo #JEA2026 #Okinawa #Archéologie -
The hashtag of the #Archaeology Days clearly lacks #gusuku pictures. Here is #Katsuren Gusuku, seen from the Eastern Enclosure, while we were working on its stone wall. It will be the best photospot of the site when it will be opened to the public. In several years, obviously, we just started geopositionning it, we haven't even dug any hole yet.
#EADays #EAD2026 #Okinawa -
Le hashtag des Journées de l' #Archéologie manque cruellement de #gusuku
Voici #Katsuren Gusuku, pris depuis l'enceinte Est pendant qu'on travaillait sur sa muraille. Ce sera le meilleur photospot du site quand il ouvrira au public. Dans plusieurs années, forcément, on vient juste de commencer par le géopositionnement, on n'a même oas encore creusé.
#JEArchéo #JEA2026 #Okinawa -
#EADays #EAD2026
What I plan for #Okinawa ! No fieldwork for me currently so no live report of my archaeo-life on the friday...
On saturday, guided tour on the fediverse of #Urasoe #Gusuku !
And on sunday, if it is not raining cats and dogs (which might unfortunately very well happen...), the great challenge "how many historical wells and springs of the kingdom period can you visit in one day on bicycle around my flat ?". I mapped 101 of them, I shall be busy.
#Archaeology -
#JEArchéo #JEA2026
Le programme sur #Okinawa ! Pas de chantier actuellement pour moi donc pas de "vis ma vie d'archéo" le vendredi.
Le samedi visite guidée sur le fédivers du #gusuku d' #Urasoe !
Et le dimanche, si il ne pleut pas des cordes (ce qui n'est pas gagné), le grand défi "combien de puits et sources historiques du Royaume de Ryukyu peut-on visiter en une journée à vélo autour de chez moi ?". J'en ai cartographié 101, y'a de quoi faire.
#Archéologie -
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Service Announcement ! we started the photographic (and laser woohoo) records at #Urasoe #Gusuku which means we took ＊all＊ the covering tarps off ＊including the ones on the previous survey areas＊! it will stay open until the 8th, ＊including this week-end＊. of course it's not possible to enter the survey areas, but you can see quite a lot from the above path that goes to wakari-jii. come and see cute stone walls !
#Okinawa #archaeology -
although it is FieldFriday we had to suspend fieldwork due to persisting rain (i'm not allowed to post pics of the dig on social media, so it wouldn't have changed much…). the rain stopped at noon and i thought i'd go and map the paths in the #gusuku that are not very accurate in #osm during the lunch break but it's raining again… i'll just give up and have coffee.
#okinawa #urasoe -
for #FootPathFriday have pictures of the path leading to wakarijī, the massive limestone outcrop at the easternmost tip of #urasoe #gusuku in
#okinawa -
#okimyu
today we'll hear Hirofumi Sugawara ( #urasoe board of education) about the latest excavations at urasoe #gusuku, Mio Ōta ( #yomitan board of education) about the site of Ōwan agari-nu-ugan, Shintarō Yokote ( #nago boe) about the earthen gusukus of #yanbaru (northern part of #okinawa island) and Ryōma Miyagi ( #tomigusuku boe) about the excavations at tomigusuku gusuku. maybe not in this order. -
#okimyu
the photograph on the title page of his PowerPoint is #zakimi gusuku. well, the model they have at the museum, which is a good choice (ok, he could have put any #gusuku here, i would have say it's a good choice)(not my fault if ＊＊all＊our gusukus are cool)
we start with a word by reiko nagamine, who is president of the association of the friends of the museum that is involved in the organisation of fevents for the 600th annyversary of the first sho dynasty. -
#okimyu the lecturer is masaaki yamamoto who works at the museum, he is a specialist of fortifications in asia and not just #gusuku , generally comparing gusukus to fortifications in various places in china or japan.
this time we'll focus on the gusukus built and used during the first sho dynasty (aka, most of them, since sho shin third king of second sho dynasty had all the gusukus emptied and kept the warlords where he could see them at shuri) -
i'm in #Ōgimi for a study-day about nejame #gusuku, which is probably far more a glorious gusuku that you think.
we'll have a presentation of the site this morning by masahiko goto (of the university of the ryukyus) and we'll go to the field afterwards this afternoon.
not so many archaeologists in the room yet, but it's open to the local inhabitants and they fill the seats 😁
i'll live toot with hashtag #nejame, mute it if you don't like gusukus 😉
#okinawa -
#gusuku
who are looking for the war victims.
THIS!
it is very difficult to ask people not to dig for the war victims. there are many cases when the analyses have proven the bones were very old.
this is the end of the conference. -
#gusuku
maybe the lay people didn't have tombs. maybe we'll start finding them from now on.
question about the fact the person when she was young did not want at all to touch bones so why would the different professors here today would want to study this sort of things ?
and he manages to reply nicely to that, he's really good.
question about the people who collect the bones of the war victims, and maybe we don't find gusuku period tombs because all the tombs are destroyed by the persons -
#gusuku
question about the very nice celadon and white porcelain origin. they were made in china, and very probably were sent to japan through a route that passed by the ryukyu. it is ＊before＊ the great ryukyu trade period, but the boats had to stop (for water, food) and there are old chinese
ceramic all over the ryukyu.
question about the fact we have so many gusuku and settlements but almost no tombs, why ? (spoiler: we don't know)
maybe we don't search in the right place. -
#gusuku
a question about the types of dna, with the jomon-type dna and yayoi-type dna. and another prof of ryukyu univ. comes to help. the people who came to ryukyu from japan in the gusuku period are already a mix jomon-yayoi. when they say「immigrant」in okinawa it doesn't mean 「yayoi」it means 「not-kaizuka」people.
and another question about the immigrants, and when the report will be ready (for the report he doesn't know), yamasaki says that the 「immigrants」' dna is close to korea and japan. -
#gusuku
ah, he made the mistake to explain thoroughly why the legend doesn't stand when you look at the archaeological facts, all the questions are going to be about that… (but he's really good)
oh, we have a question about minatogawa people (for those who don't know, that's paleaolithic). and yamasaki, who works at the museum comes to help: there is no link between minatogawa people and the kaizuka people, and so, no link with the gusuku people either. -
#gusuku
ah, i got the dates wrong, it's 2 ind. from about 1100 ce and 6 around 1300 ce. the 2 old ones have immigrant-type dna.
ah, a question about the fact tametomo came to unten and maybe that's him. tamashiro is not convinced 😁(he didn't say 「bullshit」but i could hear it) he explains thoroughly the dates don't fit and that serious historians don't believe this story has any truth in it. all archaeological data found at nakijin and shiina contradict the story. -
#gusuku
they did not eat sea mammals, while people of the gusuku period in nakijin-shiina did, so another hint that it's a different social group. they ate a lot of marine resources. more analyses about what they ate are currently being held.
dna seems to show a mix between the original kaizuka people and immigrants. (that's mitochondrial dna, by the way).
this ends the conference, we start the questions corner. -
#gusuku
3 weren't well conserved enough.
one artefact (white chinese porcelain) was found during the survey, with the bones of one of the immigrant-type. dates vary between the 12th and14th c.
they also found gusuku pottery but of a type different from what is generally found in nakijin (nakijin and shiina castles): the tempering was different(seen from here it really looks like kaizuka tempering…) so it is thought it was a different social group from the one in the nakijin and shiina castles. -
#gusuku
they made an artificial floor inside. this floor might be from the war (no artefacts)
the archaeologists opened trenches although a large part of the archaeological contexts had already been destroyed. they found limited places with archaeological layers in place, with human bones, in connexion. with flexed legs.
many labs got interested in those bones, so that they made dna surveys for 13 individuals ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
5 ind had 「kaizuka」 type haplogroups, 4 inds had mixed and immigrant types. -
#gusuku
the crania of the gusuku period are different from the kaizuka period ones, with the front teeth protruding.
there are only two of the crania conserved well enough in serikyaku-nakamichibaru but the crania and other bones are consistant with a mix kaizuka-gusuku period.
and then, the archaeological division did a real excavation survey. ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
ah, cave archaeology, so interesting and so much a pain in the ＊＊＊
there are 3 different rooms in the cave, it's been very modified by humans. -
#gusuku
so, people found bones in a cave in serikyaku-nakamichibaru, thought it was war victims and started to collect the bones. and suddenly very old ceram got out and someone had the good idea to contact the archaeological division. they found 13 an 14th century celadon. so the archaeological division got the bones and surveyed them.
there were at least 16 adult males and 9 adult females, and 1 child.
the mean height for males was 161cm (that's tall for the time), the bones were really thick -
#gusuku
the famous mumujana-baka of nakijin could be very old but the bones have been stolen by a professor of a japanese university and we can't date them until the trial is over… (what? did you say colonialism ?)
it's been tampered with recently though, there are new zushi inside (bone containers). people, stop messing with archaeological sites, thank you ?
also, give money to nakijin to make a nice survey of this tomb, even if we can't have the bones for another dozen of years… -
#gusuku
it is possible the sea was coming higher at the time, covering the low lands.
but it's still a different place compared to the other old tombs (「old tombs」furubaka are generally not older than the kingdom period, we have a lot for the kingdom period, that's the 11-14th century period for which we have almost nothing)
there are quite old 「old tombs」in nakijin, in unten for instance. for gusuku period tombs, we have the mekaru tomb in naha and some on ie island too. -
#gusuku
the site is called serikyaku-nakamichibaru cave site, that's fun because there's a place with the same name in urasoe but it's read jicchaku 勢理客 instead of serikyaku.
nakijin is very famous for its artefacts of the gusuku period but human remains are rare.
the discovery was so important that it even was reported in the national newspapers.
we have a lot of sites (settlements and castles) but very few tombs.
the old tombs in nakijin are along the coast, but this site is inside the land. -
the conference is called 「the gusuku period people of nakijin」, the speaker is Yasushi Tamashiro, of the Nakijin History and Culture Center (i suppose that's the mini-museum at the entrance of nakijin gusuku). people collected human bones in a cave in nakijin thinking they were war victims (people always do that, i really would like them to stop…) and they happened to be from the gusuku period, thank you for destroying an important archaeological site…
#gusuku -
i'll be live-tooting (in English) the conference about the gusuku period bones found in Nakijin at the Prefectural Museum, starting at 2pm, okinawa time, hashtag #gusuku if you want to mute it (but why would you ? i mean, ＊gusuku period people＊! )
https://okimu.jp/sp/event/1722330498/
sorry for the short notice, i wasn't sure i would make it on time. -
#gusuku artefacts in Nago include very rare pieces, rare both in Ryukyu and Japan.
in the Sakishima, there are many remains of fortified villages with very large stone walls. each residential enclosure has very high stone walls. there is no path between the stone enclosures. there is no comtemporary utaki ： the sacred places have been added there after the settlements were abandoned, and seem linked to the largest of the enclosures that were the residences of the leaders. -
#gusuku the presence or absence of this seiden ＋ courtyard set shows the political importance (or non-importance) of a gusuku.
in Nago Gusuku, artefacts include chinese celadon, very large pots for alcohol probably used for official meals with political implications. a large quantity has been retrieved despite the very small scale of the excavations. -
#gusuku chinese chronicles record that ryukyuan people did not want to obtain silk and clothes, but would rather have iron and ceramics. smithy are deeply important at the beginning of the gusuku period.
gusukus are political centres, often with a seiden (main building) and the courtyard where political life happened. all the large gusukus of the middle and late periods have this structure. there are two large terraces in Nangusuku too that could be for seiden ＋ courtyard. -
#gusuku kayo ue gusuku also has several terraces and its relatioeship with the nearby settlement of the same period is well documented. it proves the gusuku was not a refuge place for the villagers. there are sacred places inside too. it includes a smithy and glass beads were found there. iron was made in this remote place in the mountain, and possibly glass as well. (smithy are quite important at the beginning of gusukus and in founding legends)
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#gusuku smaller gusukus such as oyakawa gusuku in haneji have the same characteristics. oyakawa gusuku also have earth levees, which is not very common in those yanbaru gusukus (conservation problem ?).
nejame gusuku in ogimi too has several terraces and one earth levee.
yanbaru gusukus are related to good harbours.
when Nangusuku is abandoned (all ajis obliged to move to Shuri), the people living there move to new settlements around, different from the existing settlements around. -
#gusuku those gusukus are close to rivers and many imported artefacts have been found there. most of them are nowadays sacred places. there is a theory that they were ＊first＊ sacred places and then became fortifications (i don't support this theory. neither does Mr Ono apparently).
Nangusuku (Nago Gusuku) is huge, with a remarkably wide defensive trench. it's got a very large number of sacred places inside. several flat terraces were artificially created on the slopes. -
#gusuku the lecturer starts by complaining that the gusuku exhibition is only temporary and asking the museum to include it to the permanent exhibition. i quite like him.
the yanbaru gusukus are mainly made of earth. there is no stone walls, only very deep trenches and stone levees, they are mainly on hills behind old settlements and seem to be linked to those settlements, as tempopary shelter places. -
so, the conference is titled 「gusukus in the ryukyu archipelago and medieval residences in japan - from villages and residences to castles」. the lecturer is Masatoshi Ono and i would like to thank #Nago Museum for having provided ＊reading＊ on his nametag, looking for the lecturers' names' readings is always terribly time-consuming…
from the title i suppose Mr Ono is a supporter of the 「gusukus were villages」 theory.
#gusuku -
There's a conference about Chatan #Gusuku on March the 4th, expect another live-tooting ;)
The conference will be by Shiichi Tōma who is a great speaker, about "the world heritage gusukus and Chatan Gusuku". They will also disclose the results of the recent excavation survey (which my company did not manage to get involved in...). The artefacts from the survey will be shown in the nearby library. #okinawa #ryukyu
https://www.chatan.jp/smph/haisai/rekishi/bunkazai/chatangusuku_ten.html
