A strip of wood unearthed during 2001 excavations at the site of the ancient Japanese capital city of Fujiwara-kyo is a far more sophisticated artifact than it appears at first glance. After more than two decades of careful analysis, experts from Japan’s Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties have proven that this object is approximately 1,300 years old, and that it contains figures that reveal it to have been part of a larger tablet inscribed with a detailed multiplication table. Oldest Multiplication Table in Japan As of now, this inscribed piece of wood is the oldest remnant from a multiplication table ever recovered on Japanese soil. Having been found in the ruins of the ancient Fujiwara Palace, a structure built by the rulers of Fujiwara-kyo, it is believed the multiplication tablet would have had some type of official use. The Nara Institute researchers think it belonged to an administrative entity known as the Emon-fu guard, a bureau responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of the capital city’s government. This identification actually narrows the manufacture and use of the inscribed wooden artifact to a specific point in time. The capital city of Fujiwara-kyo, which was modeled after the great cities of China, was established in 694 and remained the political and administrative hub of Japanese life only until the year 710. The assumption is that the multiplication tablet would have been used by Emon-fu personnel during this period of time, for duties such as calculating taxes or organizing the work schedules of government employees. Read moreSection: ArtifactsAncient TechnologyNewsHistory & ArchaeologyRead Later