2,000-Year-Old Metal Artifact Unearthed in Japan

FUKUOKA PREFECTURE, JAPAN—The Asahi Shimbun reports that an anchor-shaped piece of a metal object measuring about three inches wide was discovered in a possible grave at the Sugu archaeological site, which is located on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. The site is thought to have been a collection of settlements, rice paddies, and cemeteries known as the country of Nakoku in Chinese chronicles. The object is estimated to be about 2,000 years old, and may have been a tool for attaching a horse’s reins to the hip of a carriage driver. Junichi Takesue of Fukuoka University said similar objects have been found in graves in southeastern Korea, and could be evidence of exchanges between the people of Nakoku and those living in southeastern region of the Korean Peninsula. For more, go to “Japan’s Early Anglers.”