Tweet Date: 2/24/18
Article Date: 2/23/18
Article Publisher: Mainichi
Article Link: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20180223/k00/00e/040/361000c
Location: Noto City, Ishikawa Prefecture
Site Name: Mawaki site
Time Period: End of Late to Beginning of Final Jomon Period apx 3300 yrs ago 約3300年前縄文時代後期末～晩期初頭
Object: Fireboard
Why is this interesting/important? I really love this find. People familiar with traditional fire starting techniques should be familiar with this particular tool. A fireboard is the base of wood that a friction fire is started on/with. When a spindle is spun by hand or a bow drill, the friction between the base of the spindle and the fireboard is what starts the fire. In this case, archaeologists uncovered a well preserved version of the tool that was radiocarbon dated to over 3000 years old! The board is 39.1 cm long, 5.5 cm wide and 1.8 cm thick, and is made of cedar. We know that people in the Jomon period obviously used fire, and generally have some good ideas on how those fires were made, but finding artifacts like these nail down the issue. This isn’t the first of these to be found of course, but it’s small things like this that really helps to bring the everyday activities of people from the past to life.