Jōmon period

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The Jōmon period (縄文時代, Jōmon-jidai^?) is the time in Japanese prehistory from about 14,000 BCE^[1]to 400 BCE.

Most scholars agree that by around 40,000 BCE glaciation had connected the Japanese islands with the Asian mainland. Based on archaeological evidence, between 35,000 BCE and 30,000 BCE Homo sapiens had migrated to the islands from eastern and southeastern Asia and had well-established patterns of hunting and gathering and stone toolmaking. Stone tools, inhabitation sites, and human fossils from this period have been found throughout all the islands of Japan. Additionally, a 1988 genetic study points to an East Asian base for the Japanese people. ^[2]

The term "Jōmon" means "cord-patterned" in Japanese. This refers to the markings made on clay vessels and figures using sticks with cords wrapped around them as well as to the pottery techniques of the Jomon-jin.^[3]

Contents 1 Incipient and initial Jōmon (14000 – 4000 BCE) 1.1 Early pottery 1.2 Neolithic traits 1.3 Population expansion 1.4 Main periods 2 Early to Final Jōmon (4000 – 400 BCE) 2.1 Main periods 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Incipient and initial Jōmon (14000 – 4000 BCE)

More stable living patterns gave rise by around 14,000 BCE to a Mesolithic or, as some scholars argue, Neolithic culture, but with some characteristics of both. Possibly distant ancestors of the Ainu aboriginal people of modern Japan, members of the heterogeneous Jōmon culture (c. 14,000-300 BCE) left the clearest archaeological record. The culture was roughly contemporaneous with civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Nile, the Hoabinhian, and the Indus Valley.

[edit] Early pottery

According to archaeological evidence, the Jōmon people may have created the first known pottery vessels in the world, known as Jōmon Pottery, dated to the 14th millennium BCE ^[3] [4] [5] , as well as the earliest ground stone tools. The antiquity of this pottery was first identified after the Second World War, through radiocarbon dating methods ^[4].

Archaeologist Junko Habu claims that "The majority of Japanese scholars believed, and still believe, that pottery production was first invented in mainland Asia and subsequently introduced into the Japanese archipelago." and explains that "A series of excavations in the Amur River Basin in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that pottery in this region may be as old as, if not older than, Fukui Cave pottery".^{[citation needed]}

The Jomon era pottery was called Jomon doki. Jomon means patterns of rope, and most earthware resembled designs made by rope. First they wet the soil and made a rope out of it (wring it into a rope). Then they gave it the desired shape with their hands. Mostly they ate or stored their food in the pots they made.The Jōmon people were also making clay figures and vessels decorated with patterns of a growing sophistication made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks.^[3]

[edit] Neolithic traits

The manufacturing of pottery typically implies some form of sedentary life due to the fact that pottery is highly breakable and thus generally useless to hunter-gatherers who are constantly on the move. Therefore, the Jōmon people were probably some of the earliest sedentary or at least semi-sedentary people in the world. They used chipped stone tools, ground stone tools, traps, and bows, and were probably semi-sedentary hunters-gatherers and skillful coastal and deep-water fishermen. They practiced a rudimentary form of agriculture and lived in caves and later in groups of either shallow pit dwellings or above-ground houses, leaving rich middens for modern archaeological study. Because of this, the earliest forms of farming are sometimes attributed to Japan (Ingpen & Wilkinson) in 10,000 BCE, two thousand years before their widespread appearance in the Middle East. However, some archaeological evidence also suggests early experiments with agriculture in the hills and valleys of the Fertile Crescent in modern Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq around 11,000 BCE. ^[5].

[edit] Population expansion

This semi-sedentary culture led to important population increases, so that the Jōmon exhibit some of the highest densities known for foraging populations ^[6]. Genetic mapping studies by Cavalli-Sforza have shown a pattern of genetic expansion from the area of the Sea of Japan towards the rest of eastern Asia. This appears as the third most important genetic movement in Eastern Asia (after the "Great expansion" from the African continent, and a second expansion from the area of Northern Siberia), which suggests geographical expansion during the early Jōmon period ^[7]. These studies also suggest that the Jōmon demographic expansion may have reached America along a path following the Pacific coast ^[8].

[edit] Main periods

Incipient Jōmon (14000 - 7500 BCE):

• Linear applique,
• Nail impression,
• Cord impression,
• Muroya lower.

Initial Jōmon (7500 - 4000 BCE):

• Igusa,
• Inaridai,
• Mito,
• Lower Tado,
• Upper Tado,
• Shiboguchi,
• Kayama.

[edit] Early to Final Jōmon (4000 – 400 BCE)

It has been suggested that Early Jōmon, Middle Jōmon, Late Jōmon and Final Jōmon be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

The Early and Middle Jōmon periods saw an explosion in population, as indicated by the number of excavations from this period. These two periods correspond to the prehistoric Holocene Climatic Optimum (between 4000 and 2000 BCE), when temperatures reached several degrees Celsius higher than the present, and the seas were higher by 5 to 6 metres.^[9] Beautiful artistic realizations, such as highly decorated "flamed" vessels, remain from that time. After 1500 BCE, the climate cooled, and populations seem to have contracted dramatically. Comparatively few archaeological sites can be found after 1500 BCE.

By the end of the Jōmon period, a dramatic shift had taken place according to archaeological studies. Incipient cultivation had evolved into sophisticated rice-paddy farming and government control. Many other elements of Japanese culture also may date from this period and reflect a mingled migration from the northern Asian continent and the southern Pacific areas. Among these elements are Shinto mythology, marriage customs, architectural styles, and technological developments, such as lacquerware, textiles, laminated bows, metalworking, and glass making.

[edit] Main periods

Early Jōmon (4000 - 3000 BCE):

• Lower Hanazumi,
• Sekiyama,
• Kurohama,
• Moroiso (Jōmon period)|Moroiso]] A,B,C
• Juusanbodai.

Middle Jōmon (3000 - 2000 BCE):

• Katsusaka/Otamadai,
• Kasori E1,
• Kasori E2.

Late Jōmon (2000 - 1000 BCE):

• Shyomyouji,
• Horinouchi,
• Kasori B1,
• Kasori B2,
• Angyo 1.

Final Jōmon (1000 - 400 BCE):

• Angyo 2,
• Angyo 3.

[edit] See also

• Jōmon Pottery
• dogu
• Japanese era name#Unofficial nengō system (私年号)
• Jōmon Era count
• Jeulmun pottery period

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. - Japan
• "Ancient Jomon of Japan", by Junko Habu, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-77213-3
• "Prehistoric Japan", by Keiji Imamura, University of Hawai Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8248-1852-0
• "Subsistence-Settlement systems in intersite variability in the Moroiso Phase of the Early Jomon Period of Japan", Junko Habu, 2001, ISBN 1-879621-32-0
• Encyclopedia of Ideas that changed the World, Robert Ingpen and Philip Wilkinson, 1993, ISBN 0-670-84642-2
• "The History and Geography of Human Genes", Cavalli-Sforza, ISBN 0-691-08750-4
• The Neolithic Age in Eastern Siberia. Henry N. Michael. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Ser., Vol. 48, No. 2 (1958), pp. 1-108. (laminated bow from Korekawa, Aomori)

[edit] External links

• Jōmon Japan at Jomonjapan.org
• EMuseum at Minnesota State University, Mankato The Paleolithic Period/Jōmon Period