Factory site of Nara period discovered
Several large scale factory sites of Nara period were discovered near the Heijokyo site in Nara city.
The National Research Institute of Nara Cultural Properties have excavated to find several building sites. Three of the sites contained marks for possible ovens to melt steel, anvils, and holes for waste; suggesting that the building might have been used as factories for making nails and so on. The largest building site measures 117 square meters, and they found 45 marks of ovens that were about 20~30 cm radius and 40 cm deep. They also identified the grooves around the buildings that were used as drainage for the factories, and in which charcoal and steel scraps were also found.
So far, this is the largest factory sites found near the Heijokyo site. The director of the research institute, Mr. Nobuhiko Koike, commented, “We think these factories produced materials and parts for the Heijokyo buildings.”
