Remains of what appears to be Queen Himiko's palace found in Nara

Wednesday 11th November, 03:42 AM JST

KASHIHARA —

Archaeologists have found remains of a building structure dating back to the early third century in western Japan’s Nara Prefecture, which could be a palace of legendary Japanese ruler Queen Himiko, a local education board said Tuesday.

The board said it estimates a stilt house with a total floor space of some 238 square meters was located in the so-called Makimuku ruins in the city of Sakurai in Nara, and the remains are believed to be the largest at that time period. Queen Himiko governed Japan’s Yamatai Kingdom from about the end of the second century and died around 248, according to descriptions on Japan in Chinese ancient history books.

› Login to comment

6 Comments

KallyPygous at 12:22 PM JST - 11th November

That's a pretty long reign.
kokorocloud at 01:16 PM JST - 11th November

Awesome! I'll have to look into this further. That sounds so fascinating.
nandakandamanda at 02:42 PM JST - 11th November

KallyPygous: That's a pretty long reign.

Getting close to Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. Another strong female leader.
Beelzebub at 05:46 PM JST - 11th November

These remarkable "finds" are usually reported in the most spectacular way, full of wishful thinking, but then when they turn out to be false afterwards the media never retract the initial speculative report. I refused to be convinced it was actually her palace unless archeologists turn up a customized rusted license plate bearing the characters "HIMIKO URGR8".
smithinjapan at 07:05 PM JST - 11th November

Cool. Too bad they're simply going to take a few pictures and samples and then pave over it all.
pathat at 11:17 PM JST - 11th November

"Cool. Too bad they're simply going to take a few pictures and samples and then pave over it all."

But smith, how else would they be able to promote it for inclusion as a World Heritage Site?