Omori Shell Mounds Garden in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, was built on the site, where Omori Shell Mounds were discovered and excavated.

Omori Shell Mounds happened to be discovered in 1877 by Edward Morse, an American biologist, through a train window on the way from Yokohama to Shinbashi.  He found layers of white shells on a slope of a railroad cut through hilly terrain near Omori Station.  A few months later, he set about the excavation work with three Japanese assistants and consequently unearthed many ancient daily necessities such as earthenware, clay figures, stone axes, bone fragments of deer and whales, and the like.  These excavated artifacts are kept at Tokyo University now and most of them were designated as important cultural assets in 1975.  Thanks to Morse’s effort, the site was clarified to be the remains of a community of about 30 inhabitants in the 10th century B.C.  This area was on a hill facing the ocean where people lived together catching maline products at that time.  The authorities created Omori Shell Mounds Garden on the site of the ancient community in 1996 to praise his great achievement.  His work with some young Japanese specialists was Japan’s first full-fledged archeological study.  The first photo shows the statue of Edward Morse in the garden.  The second one is the peeling specimen of the shell mounds.

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