The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), sent investigators to look into the Kita-Kogane Shell Mound in Date City on September 13. The Japanese government is aiming to register “the Jomon Archaeological sites in Hokkaido and Northern Tohoku” (areas in Hokkaido and Honshu’s Aomori, Iwate, and Akita) as a World Heritage Site, and the Kita-Kogane Shell Mound is one of the ruins being considered. Part of the investigation was made public to the press.
The group of investigators took about one hour to look around the Kita-Kogane Shell Mound Information Center where excavated artifacts and information materials are displayed, also visiting the remains that are said to have been used as a ritual place. The field investigation will take four to fifteen days with visits to a total of seventeen ruins in four prefectures.