During the Meiji period, an architectural historian Tadashi SEKINO discovered a grassy mound in the rice paddies to be a stylobate for Daigokuden (the Imperial Audience Hall) (latter), and published "Heijo-kyo oyobi dai-dairi ko" (A Study of Heijo-kyo and Dai-dairi) in Nara Newspaper in 1907.
明治時代に建築史家、関野貞が田んぼの中にある小高い芝地が大極殿（第二次）の基壇であることを発見、1907年『平城京及大内裏考』を奈良新聞に発表した。