Jōmon period
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Wikipedia source - Title
- Jōmon period
- Abstract
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In Japanese history, the Jōmon period (縄文時代, Jōmon jidai) is the time between c. 14,000 and 300 BC, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism and cultural complexity. The name "cord-marked" was first applied by the American zoologist and orientalist Edward S. Morse, who discovered sherds of pottery in 1877 and subsequently translated it into Japanese as Jōmon. The pottery style characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture was decorated by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay and is generally accepted to be among the oldest in the world.
The Jōmon period was rich in tools and jewelry made from bone, stone, shell and antler; pottery figurines and vessels; and lacquerware. It is often compared to pre-Columbian cultures of the North American Pacific Northwest and especially to the Valdivia culture in Ecuador because in these settings cultural complexity developed within a primarily hunting-gathering context with limited use of horticulture. - Wikipedia Link
- Description
- The earliest Japanese pottery is very rare, having been used by nomadic people. Around 9000 BP, sedentary villages occur that have large quantities of pottery called Jomon pottery. The next five chapters discuss the long period of these stable settlements which had no agriculture, but made efficient use of temperate forests (largely acorns) and of fishing. The Jomon period was long-lived, and during it, Japan was isolated from the rest of the world and from such developments as agriculture, horse riding, bronze, trade over long distances, and cities (Imamura, 1996).
- Bibliographic Citation
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Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia
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