Japan: Yayoi and Kofun
Wet rice, bronze and iron arrive from the continent, and keyhole tombs follow.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 799 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
The Yayoi period from around 300 BCE brings wet-rice agriculture, metallurgy and new population from the Korean peninsula, transforming the Jomon foraging society. From about 250 CE elite burials take the form of enormous keyhole-shaped mounded tombs — the largest, attributed to Emperor Nintoku, is bigger by area than any Egyptian pyramid — indicating the consolidation of a powerful state in the Yamato plain.