Arayashiki Shellmound View

Arayashiki Shellmound is the place where you can see the town of Chiba City, because it is at the end of the Hokuso Plateau which bounds for Tone River to the north. In the Middle Jomon ( ca. 3000BC ), the Arayashiki Shellmound was a comfortable climate to live like now. The people in those days hunted deer / boars, and gathered fruit / nuts/ potatoes on the forest around this shellmound. Also, they went to the sea ( about 3 km to Tokyo-bay at those days ) with their wooden boat to gather shellfish / seaweed, and to catch fish. They took back these foodstuffs to their dwelling here, and then they cooked and ate them. In Jomon period, the boiling cooking method by using earthen pottery was developed in Japan. So the choice of foodstuff to cook becomes very wide. And then a lot of pottery was made in Jomon period. At Arayashiki Shellmound, many potteries or their fragments are excavated. These potteries have designs on their surface. I don't know whether they had time or they devoted, but the excessive design of the pottery shows the improvement of the culture.

	The slope of Arayashiki Shellmound, from the south. People carried the picked sea food over this slope in Jomon period.
	The view to the east. Now, farmers are raising water for the rice field with a pump. About 1990AD, there were several springs along this sharow branched valley and the tiny stream of 50〜60 cm width was flowing. Crayfish were in the stream. There was a marsh left of this view with fish and suckers. There were also more trees upstream. I think the trees, called green dam, are the most important for the nature. The sewerage is laid for the upstream town and the drainage became good. The life waste fluid stopped contaminating nature.
	1/1/1999AD　　　　　　 Also Jomon people watched this rising sun.
	Here was the sight where a father teaches his son how to raise a kite remembering his old good days.
	There is the space where the wild bent is growing thinly at the center of Arayashiki Shellmound . Tall grass never grows as was in Jomon Period.  The most favorite place for dogs and children.

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