While working on a joint project between the institute and the national museum of Kazakhstan, Tamura learned that the same glass beads had been excavated from ruins in Kazakhstan. The tribe flourished in the same period as the Yayoi Pottery Culture Period (1000 B.C.-A.D. Tamura said the beads found in Itoshima were “likely brought to East Asia through a trade route known as the ‘Steppe Route’ that connects Eurasia’s east and west and passes through Central Asia and the Mongolian plateau.”ĭuring a research trip to Mongolia, Tamura noted a similarity in terms of colors and shapes between the beads and an artifact excavated from a tomb of the equestrian nomadic people known as the Kyodo. The ruins are believed to be the former tomb of a king of Itokoku, a nation appearing in a Chinese history book known as “Gishiwajinden.” The group analyzed an artifact made of two-layer blue glass beads, discovered from the Hirabaru ruins in Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, in the 1960s. Researchers have concluded that glass beads excavated from the tomb of a king in Fukuoka Prefecture were likely brought to Japan through the ancient Silk Road trade route network.Ī group of researchers, led by Tomomi Tamura of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, reported the finding at an academic conference held online on Sept.

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