At the archaeological site of Makimuku in Japan, archaeologists have made the unique discovery of numerous peach pits that have been in existence since the time of Queen Himiko. After conducting carbon-14 dating on these peach pits, it has been estimated that the peaches would have been grown between 135 and 230 AD. There is also added excitement that this location could have once been the location of a kingdom that was known as Yamataikoku.

The Asahi Shimbun has reported that the Research Center of the Makimukugaku in Sakurai City, Japan has stated that 2,800 peach seeds were found deep in a pit located at the site along with a treasure trove of other ancient artifacts including bones, plants, and pieces of pottery and baskets. Archaeologists believe it is extremely likely that these items were placed carefully inside the pit in order to conduct rituals.

The location where the ancient peach pits were found is believed to be one possible location for Yamataikoku, which is mentioned in a book called Gishiwajinden. It is surmised that this ancient kingdom came into being sometime during the end of the second century and flourished until the middle half of the third century when Queen Himiko died.

Kaoru Terasawa, who is a director at the Research Center of the Makimukugaku in Japan, noted that the dating of the peach pits and artifacts found at the site all easily fall into the date range of the time of Queen Himiko.

“The dates derived by scientific analysis fell into the range we expected. Along with the archeological analysis based on the age of potteries, the age of the large building was verified to be from the first half of the third century.”

Nara peach pits carbon dated to reign of ancient queen Himiko: Thousands of peach pits found near building ruins in the Makimuku archeological site in western Japan were likely harvested between 135 and 230 A.D., adding to the… https://t.co/YifWFIt0No pic.twitter.com/ym2rNdbXCh — Damion Frye (@fryedaddy) May 14, 2018

To properly date the peach pits, accelerator mass spectrometry was used on 15 of the pits, and 12 of these were found to perfectly date to the time that Himiko would have been queen. The ruins of the building on the site were also properly dated for the first time, and carbon dating once again showed that the building, like the peach pits, is very likely to have been constructed during the queen’s reign.

With such an extraordinary discovery as these ancient peach pits from the time of Japan’s Queen Himiko, further research will almost certainly be conducted at the site to try and determine if this could indeed have once been part of the ancient kingdom of Yamataikoku.