Kanenokuma 'Ruins'

Sunday morning I spent more or less underground. I knew that there was a Nishitetsu Bus going to Kanenokuma, so I went to the Tenjjin main station and asked which bus I had to take in order to get to the site of Kanenokuma. After studying various maps the lady decided that the bus would leave from Hakata station, so I took the underground and went to Hakata station. At the informatin desk the same thing happened. Maps were drawn out from beneath and the equally friendly lady told me to go to Fukuoka airport station. That would be where the bus would leave. So again I vanished into the underground and took the metro to the airport. Meanwhile I was reallly hungry and took a break at one of the many coffee bars that exist beneath Fukuoka.

This time I was at the right place, so all I had to do was to ask someone which bus line I had to take, because -as usual- Kanji only! The bus driver put me off in the middle of an industrial park area and after asking the people at a petrol station I really mananged to find the sign (meanwhile I knew how Kanenokuma was written in Kanj) leading to the site.

And here it is. I am proudly presenting the middle to late Yayoi burial site of Kanenokuma:


The central point of the exhibition is a piece of a 'fossilzed' excavation trench:


In contrast to other periods a lot of child burials existed in the Yayoi time. At this huge burial ground more than 50 % of the burials are children's. Here an example of a jar burial tyical for the middle Yayoi period:

You may remember that last week I battled the dangerous water snakes. This week I had to cope with the even more dangerous water frogs:

But this might explain the high death toll among the Yayoi children :)