Before the construction of the paddy fields
Two pottery dumps from the tottaimon 3 phase at the end of the final Jomon period were excavated in the forest. The existence of these remains indicates that the village at this time was not far from the forest.
Although the forest fauna then was different from that of the Yayoi period, we can be certain that the forest was exploited during the latter for hunting, gathering, and harvesting wood. They continued to utilize the forest space in similar ways to their Jomon forebears, even once the paddy fields were built in the early Yayoi period. The forest not only supplied food compensating for the small yield of rice from the paddies, but also provided various other resources, such as meat and timber.There is evidence for how the forest was used at the end of the Jomon period, prior to the construction of the paddies. During the investigations at Nakanishi-Akitsu, buried forests were discovered in area 15 at Nakanishi that dated not only to the early Yayoi but also the final Jomon. Immediately beneath the earlier early Yayoi paddy layers on the southern bank of the waterway were found trunks of a variety of species of oak, including Quercus subgen. Cyclobalanopsis, Quercus Sect. Cerris, and Quercus Sect. Prinus.[832] On the northern bank a concentration of late final Jomon tottaimon phase 2 pottery was found, suggesting that people were living nearby at this stage. By contrast, the small number of artefacts from the south side of the river suggests that there was little settlement on this side. Just below the roots complete examples of stag beetle (Prosopocoilus inclinatus) were discovered. The ecological characteristics suggest that this was a liminal zone between mountains and exploited areas. The pollen analysis suggests that at area 6 of the Akitsu site there was very little woodland pollen, but a predominance of grass, notably Artemisia which favours cool and dry conditions, again suggesting a relatively open forest environment.[833] There were also quite high quantities of chestnut (Castanea crenata) away from the waterway on slightly higher ground, suggesting there were stands in the vicinity of the new paddies as well.
At the Kannonji-Honma site which spans the border between Kashihara and Gose cities, some thirty trunks of chestnut have been found buried in an old river course, dating from the middle part of the final Jomon.[834] A possible settlement with many artefacts, traces of buildings, and burials was located about 200 m south of this chestnut stand, and it seems that many materials were dumped in the watercourse.[835] These include many plant remains, in particular chestnuts, indicating that these were being exploited as food by the people living there. Some of the chestnut timbers had also been used for architectural purposes. Along with the evidence from Akitsu area 6 and Nakanishi area 14, it seems that from the end of the final Jomon to the early half of the early Yayoi, the environment into which rice paddies were being introduced had chestnut as an important component, which was being utilized for various purposes by the Jomon people there.