Nabatake Site, Archaeological excavation site in Karatsu, Japan

Nabatake Site is an archaeological excavation area on a gentle hill in western Karatsu, positioned about 10 meters above sea level. The location reveals multiple layers of human settlement with remains including wooden implements, stone tools, and pottery from different time periods.

Discovered in 1979, the site was excavated from December 1980 to August 1981 and designated a national historic site in 1983. Its 16 layers revealed paddy fields from the late Jomon period, with the earliest dated to around 930 BCE by radiocarbon calibration. The remains include water channels, weirs, and wooden stakes, showing Japan's earliest known rice paddy farming.

The museum on the site is named Surokan after the kingdom of Suro recorded in the Chinese chronicle Wei Zhi Wo Ren Zhuan, which places it near this part of Karatsu. Exhibits include carbonized rice, stone sickles, hoes and sickles from the dig, and a reconstructed pit dwelling and rice paddy stand outside.

The site lies about 1 km west of the south exit of JR Karatsu Station, on a slope facing a valley floor at roughly 10 m elevation. No route bus currently runs to the immediate area, so the last stretch is on foot. The reconstructed rice field and pit dwellings stand outdoors; the Matsurokan museum holds the excavated finds.

About 250 carbonized rice grains were found at Nabatake, over 100 of them identified as japonica. The pottery in the same layer, Yamanotera-style, is older than the Nightjar-style ware of the Itazuke site, which had previously held the title of Japan's oldest paddy. The grains came from a bed of four small fields covering just over 18 square metres.