Osteological Collections of the Department of Anthropology

Our collection consists of nearly 6,000 skeletal remains. Of these, about 300 individuals are from the protohistoric Kofun period of Japan (ca. 300 - ca. 1200 A.D.); about 400 from medieval times (ca. 1200 - ca. 1600); and some 4,800 from the early modern Edo period (1603 - 1867 A.D.). The remainder are from various times and sites, not only from Japan but also from other countries. As well, there are a small number of older specimens from the Pleistocene and the Jomon Periods of Japan, etc. The major problem in any skeletal collection is bone preservation, which varies from specimen to specimen and, in fact, some specimens have been so affected by the ravages of time that they are not very useful for research purposes. As a result, despite the fact that some parts of the collection are relatively well preserved, others are fragmentary and it takes a great deal of effort to extract meaningful information from specimens such as these.

In "Human Skeletal Remains from the Edo Period ", we will show you the variation of the skull in the Edo people. The Edo period is the early modern time (1603 A.D.-1867 A.D.) of Japan. We now registered the skeletal remains of about 4,800 from the Edo period. Although we do not show all of them because they are not necessarily in good preservation, we would be very happy if you would get any information or hint from this presentation for your research or for your life.

Site-by-Site Database of the Human Osteological Collection

This is a site-by-site database of the human skeletal remains housed in our Department. You can refer to the information such as the number of the skeleton, and locality and chrolonlgical age of the site.

• Database of the Human Osteological Collection (Compiled for Each Site)