Jomon

The earliest major postglacial culture of hunting and gathering in Japan, 10,000-300 BC, divided into six phases. This early culture, its relics surviving in shell mounds of kitchen midden type around the coasts of the Japanese islands, had pottery but no metal. The pottery was heavy but elaborate, especially in the modeling of its castellated rims. The term Jomon means 'cord marked', indicating the characteristic decoration of the pottery with cord-pattern impressions or reliefs. One of the earliest dates in the world for pottery making has been established as c 12,700 BC in Fukin Cave, Kyshu. Other artifacts, of stone and bone, were simple. Light huts, round or rectangular, have been identified. Burials were by inhumation, crouched or extended. The Jomon was succeeded by the Yayoi period. There are over 10,000 Jomon sites divided into the six phases: Incipient (10,000-7500 BC), Earliest (7500-5000 BC), Early (5000-3500 BC), Middle (3500-2500/2000 BC), Late (2500/2000-1000 BC), and Final (1000-300 BC). Widespread trading networks and ritual development took place in the Middle Jomon. Rice agriculture was adopted during the last millennium BC. The origins of Jomon culture remain uncertain, although similarities with early cultures of northeast Asia and even America are often cited.

A Japanese word for ‘cord mark’, used to describe all pre-YAYOi pottery; the term is also used to describe a period from about 10,000 bc to 300 bc and all the archaeological remains of this period. There are over 10,000 Jomon sites, and hundreds of pottery types have been defined. These are arranged into regional sequences, correlated into a nation-wide ceramic chronology. It is customarily divided into five segments: Initial (10,000-5000 bc), Early (5000-3500 bc), Middle (3500-2500 bc), Late (2500-1000 BC) and Final (1000-300 BC). The dates are compromises of radiocarbon, The oldest pottery is not cord-marked, but has appliqué designs of dots or lines below the rim of a plain bowl. Among the dated sites for this phase are Fukui, Kamikuroiwa and Sempukuji. Cord-marking appeared about a thousand years later, and about 7500 BC rolling a cord-wrapped or notched stick over the wet surface before firing became a widely used practice. As seen at Natsushima, there is a clear evidence also for the use of bows and arrows, fishing and shellfish collecting. Some authors reserve the use of the word Jomon for the post-7500 bc remains, preferring to call the earlier ones Mesolithic or Proto- Initial Jomon pots are conical, mediumsized, and simply decorated. They seem to have been used for cooking. Early Jomon saw the increase in vessel shapes, from large storage jars to shallow serving bowls. Decorative designs also varied regionally, and are often very complex, combining cordmarking, incising, punctating and moulding. Pit houses, common throughout the Jomon Period, became quite substantial and were made in large clusters during Early and Middle Idojiri is a good example of substantial clusters of house remains, with elaborate pottery, personal ornaments and ritual objects. These clusters disappeared from inland by Late and Final Jomon, when population centres shifted to coastal regions. Spectacular developments in pottery, figurines and fishing harpoons occurred then along the Pacific coast of north and central Honshu. The earlier regional diversity of ceramic styles is replaced by a few widely distributed styles, such as the Kamegaoka style of the Final Jomon. Throughout the Jomon Period, sites are not as numerous in southwestern Japan, and pottery is less ornate than in the northeast. The pottery made during the last few centuries of the Jomon Period in Southwestern Japan, particularly in northern Kyushu, is quite similar to the Early Yayoi pottery. The northeast-southwest contrast seems to be reflected in Jomon physique, although samples of skeletal remains large enough to draw a meaningful conclusion are not numerous. There is also a trend towards large and robust physique from a shorter and gracile population in earlier times. The Jomon Period began when the deciduous broad-leaf forest was expanding in Japan, and 80 per cent of Jomon sites are located in the area where this environment, rich in edible nuts and game, prevailed in the past. These resources, with fish, shellfish, and sea mammals, were clearly important to Jomon people. In addition, there is increasing evidence that some plants were cultivated. Among them are Echnochloa and Perilla species. Bottle gourds and mung beans, recovered at Torihama and other sites, are likely to have been brought in as cultigens. Buckwheat and rice are reported as well from Late and Final Jomon sites. The Jomon Period ended when wet-rice cultivation became fully established. While this was spreading towards the northeast, Jomon cultures continued in northern Honshu and Hokkaido. On the latter island, a way of life essentially similar to Jomon continued as ‘Epi-Jomon’ until the 8th century.