The Yayoi period(弥生時代Yayoi-jidai) is an era in the history of Japan from about 500 BC to 300 AD. It is named after the neighbourhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era. Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new pottery styles and the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields. The Yayoi followed the Jōmon period (14,000 BC to 500 BC) and Yayoi culture flourished in a geographic area from southern Kyūshū to northern Honshū.
The Yayoi period(弥生時代Yayoi-jidai) is an era in the history of Japan from about 500 BC to 300 AD. It is named after the neighbourhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era. Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new pottery styles and the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields. The Yayoi followed the Jōmon period (14,000 BC to 500 BC) and Yayoi culture flourished in a geographic area from southern Kyūshū to northern Honshū. A new study used the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry method to analyze carbonized remains on pottery and wooden stakes, and discovered that these were dated back to 900 BC–800 BC, nearly 500 years earlier than previously believed. These artifacts came from the northern region of Kyūshū, and to further confirm this finding, artifacts from China and Jōmon earthenware from the Tohoku region of the same time period as the initial study were compared with the same results. Another researcher used other artifacts from similar Yayoi period sites and found that these were dated back to 500–400 BC.