Collaborative Research on Cut Injuries and the Agents in Ancient Human Skeletons

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In the present research, especially human skeletons with cut injuries from the Yayoi period, possible skeletons killed in homicide cases, have been macro-anatomically investigated in detail, and the actual states and situations of those injuries have been comparatively analysed among the Yayoi skeletons unearthed at the Shibu site, Nara Prefecture, at the Aoya-Kamijichi site, Tottori Prefecture, and at the Shinpo site, Kobe City, and with homicidal injuries in forensic anatomy cases. At the same time, using the realistic replicas of many kinds of stone- and bronze-weapons found at archaeological sites from the Yayoi period, experiments to make injuries on the fresh bones of Japanese monkeys and pigs have been repeated at the laboratory. We have tried to identify the causative relations between bone injuries and weapons to be used, referring injuries on ancient human bones to those on modern animal bones. As the result of the bone injury model becoming more elaborate and realistic, we have reached to an authentic methodology of discriminating if homicide cases or not, and probable weapons as well with the Yayoi human skeletons. This is one of the most remarkable results in the present study. Furthermore, we have found it useful to classify ancient bone injuries into four categories, that is, stabbing, cutting, shooting and damaging. Anyway, it should be very significant that through this collaborative research, we have become able to understand the nature of ancient bone injuries and the possible/probable causative agents of such injuries with the Yayoi human skeletons in Japan. Thus we can say that a step to investigate substantially into the so-called ‘Wakoku-no-Tairan' (Great War Affairs) in the late-Yayoi period, has now materialized.