The Jomon period (Japanese: 縄文時代 Jōmon-jidai) is the time in Japanese history from about 10,000 BCE to 300 BCE. The history of Japan probably started around 100,000 BCE, date when the earliest stone tool implements have been found. ... (Pleistocene, Paleolithic – 10th millennium BC – 9th millennium BC – other millennia) Beginning of the Mesolithic, or Epipaleolithic time period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. ... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC - 300s BC - 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC Years: 305 BC 304 BC 303 BC 302 BC 301 BC - 300 BC - 299 BC 298 BC...

Most scholars agree that by around 40,000 BCE glaciation had connected the islands with the 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 a Northern Mongoloid base for the Japanese peoples. ^[1] The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (Greek παλαιός paleos=old and λίθος lithos=stone or the Old Stone Age) was the first period in the development of human technology of the Stone Age. ... A glaciation (a created composite term meaning Glacial Period, referring to the Period or Era of, as well as the process of High Glacial Activity), often called an ice age, is a geological phenomenon in which massive ice sheets form in the Arctic and Antarctic and advance toward the equator. ... The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (Greek παλαιός paleos=old and λίθος lithos=stone or the Old Stone Age) was the first period in the development of human technology of the Stone Age. ... The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (Greek παλαιός paleos=old and λίθος lithos=stone or the Old Stone Age) was the first period in the development of human technology of the Stone Age. ... This stylistic schematic diagram shows a gene in relation to the double helix structure of DNA and to a chromosome (right). ... Typical Mongoloid Skull A portrait of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan; the Mongolians, for which the term Mongoloid was named after, are an example of the prototype Northern Mongoloid. ...

The term "Jomon" is a translation into Japanese of the English term "cord-marked". This refers to the markings made on clay vessels and figures using sticks with cords wrapped around them. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Incipient and Initial Jomon (10000 - 4000 BCE)

Characters for Jōmon ("Cord marks").

Incipient Jomon pottery (10,000-8,000 BCE) Tokyo National Museum, Japan.

More stable living patterns gave rise by around 10,000 BCE to a Mesolithic or, as some scholars argue, Neolithic culture. Possibly distant ancestors of the Ainu aboriginal people of modern Japan, members of the heterogeneous Jomon culture (c. 10,000-300 BCE) left the clearest archeological record. The culture was roughly contemperaneous with civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Nile, and the Indus Valley. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... The Tokyo National Museum. ... (Pleistocene, Paleolithic – 10th millennium BC – 9th millennium BC – other millennia) Beginning of the Mesolithic, or Epipaleolithic time period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. ... The Mesolithic (Greek mesos=middle and lithos=stone or the Middle Stone Age) is the period between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. ... The Neolithic (or New Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionally the last part of the Stone Age. ... The Ainu (pronounced , eye-noo, アイヌ / aynu) are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaido, the northern part of Honshu in Northern Japan, the Kuril Islands, much of Sakhalin, and the southernmost third of the Kamchatka peninsula. ... The term indigenous peoples has no universal, standard or fixed definition. ... Archaeology or archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Mesopotamia (Greek: Μεσοποταμία, translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan between rivers; Aramaic name being Beth Nahrain house of rivers) is a region of Southwest Asia. ... Ancient Egypt was a civilization located along the Lower Nile, reaching from the Nile Delta in the north to as far south as Jebel Barkal at the time of its greatest extension (15th century BC). ... Full extent of the civilization. ...

Early pottery

According to archaeological evidence, the Jomon people may have created the first known pottery vessels in the world, dated to the 11th millennium BCE ^[2], 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 ^[3]. The Jomon people were 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. Unfired green ware pottery on a traditional drying rack at Conner Prairie living history museum. ... (Redirected from 11th millennium BCE) The Pleistocene epoch is part of the geologic timescale, usually dated as 1. ... Combatants Allies: • Poland, • UK & Commonwealth, • France/Free France, • Soviet Union, • USA, • China, ...and others• Axis: • Germany, • Italy, • Japan, • ...and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total: 50 million Full list Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total: 12 million Full list World War II... Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring isotope carbon-14 to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to ca 60,000 years. ...

Neolithic traits

The manufacture of pottery typically implies some form of sedentary life, since pottery is highly breakable and thus is useless to hunter-gatherers who are constantly on the move. Therefore, the Jomon 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 practised a rudimentary form of agriculture and lived in caves and later in groups of either temporary shallow pit dwellings or above-ground houses, leaving rich kitchen middens for modern anthropological 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. ^[4]. Sedentism is the shift of people who live in non-permanent settlements to living in permanent settlements. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... In archaeology, chipped stone refers to a method of manufacturing stone tools through lithic reduction, wherein lithic flakes are struck off a mass of tool stone with a percussor. ... In archaeology, ground stone is a category of stone tool formed by the grinding of a coarse-grained tool stone, either purposefully or incidentally. ... This is about the projectile weapon bow. ... A midden, or kitchen midden, is a dump for domestic waste. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, human or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Middle East incorporating present-day Israel, West Bank, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq and south-eastern Turkey. ...

Population expansion

This semi-sedentary culture led to important population increases, so that the Jomon exhibit some of the highest densities known for foraging populations ^[5]. 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 Jomon period ^[6]. These studies also suggest that the Jomon demographic expansion may have reached America along a path following the Pacific coast ^[7]. Categories: People stubs | 1922 births | Italian people | Population geneticists ... The Sea of Japan (East Sea) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. ...

Main periods

Incipient Jomon (10000 - 7500 BCE):
(Redirected from 10000 BC) (Pleistocene, Paleolithic – 10th millennium BC – 9th millennium BC – other millennia) Beginning of the Mesolithic, or Epipaleolithic time period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. ... (9th millennium BC – 8th millennium BC – 7th millennium BC – other millennia) Events The south area of Çatalhöyük. ...

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

Initial Jomon (7500 - 4000 BCE):
(9th millennium BC – 8th millennium BC – 7th millennium BC – other millennia) Events The south area of Çatalhöyük. ... (5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC - other millennia) Events City of Ur in Mesopotamia (40th century BC). ...

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

Early to Final Jomon (4000 - 400 BCE)

A Middle Jōmon vessel (3000-2000 BCE) called Kaen doki（火焔土器 "flame-formed earthenware vessel"), Tokyo National Museum, Japan.

The Early and Middle Jomon periods saw an explosion in population, as indicated by the number of excavations from this period. These two periods correspond to the prehistoric thermal 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 meters. 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 archeological sites can be found after 1500 BCE. Jomon vessel with flame-like ornamentation. ... Jomon vessel with flame-like ornamentation. ... (31st century BC - 30th century BC - 29th century BC - other centuries) (4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC) Events 2925 - 2776 BC - First Dynasty wars in Egypt 2900 BC - Beginning of the Early Dynastic Period I in Mesopotamia. ... (Redirected from 2000 BCE) (21st century BC - 20th century BC - 19th century BC - other centuries) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 2064 - 1986 BC -- Twin Dynasty wars in Egypt 2000 BC -- Farmers and herders travel south from Ethiopia and settle in Kenya. ... The Tokyo National Museum. ... The thermal optimum (between 4000 and 2000 BC), was a period when temperatures reached several degrees Celsius higher than the present, and the seas were higher by 5 to 6 meters. ...

By the end of the Jomon 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, metalworking, and glass making. A paddy field in Japan A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. ... A torii at Itsukushima Shrine Shinto (Kanji: 神道 Shintō) (sometimes called Shintoism) is a native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. ...

A Final Jomon statuette called dogū (土偶 "earthenware figure") (1000-400 BCE), Tokyo National Museum, Japan.

Download high resolution version (429x607, 161 KB)This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... Download high resolution version (429x607, 161 KB)This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ... (Redirected from 1000 BC) Centuries: 12th century BC - 11th century BC - 10th century BC Decades: 1050s BC 1040s BC 1030s BC 1020s BC 1010s BC - 1000s BC - 990s BC 980s BC 970s BC 960s BC 950s BC Events and Trends 1006 BC - David becomes king of the ancient Israelites (traditional... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC - 400s BC - 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC Years: 405 BC 404 BC 403 BC 402 BC 401 BC - 400 BC - 399 BC 398 BC... The Tokyo National Museum. ...

Main periods

Early Jomon (4000 - 3000 BCE):
(5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC - other millennia) Events City of Ur in Mesopotamia (40th century BC). ... (31st century BC - 30th century BC - 29th century BC - other centuries) (4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC) Events 2925 - 2776 BC - First Dynasty wars in Egypt 2900 BC - Beginning of the Early Dynastic Period I in Mesopotamia. ...

• Hanazumi,
• Sekiyama,
• Kurohama,
• Moroiso A,
• Moroiso B,
• Juusanbodai.

Middle Jomon (3000 - 2000 BCE):
Middle Jomon (ca. ... (31st century BC - 30th century BC - 29th century BC - other centuries) (4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC) Events 2925 - 2776 BC - First Dynasty wars in Egypt 2900 BC - Beginning of the Early Dynastic Period I in Mesopotamia. ... (Redirected from 2000 BCE) (21st century BC - 20th century BC - 19th century BC - other centuries) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 2064 - 1986 BC -- Twin Dynasty wars in Egypt 2000 BC -- Farmers and herders travel south from Ethiopia and settle in Kenya. ...

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

Late Jomon (2000 - 1000 BCE):
Late Jomon (ca. ... (Redirected from 2000 BC) (21st century BC - 20th century BC - 19th century BC - other centuries) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 2064 - 1986 BC -- Twin Dynasty wars in Egypt 2000 BC -- Farmers and herders travel south from Ethiopia and settle in Kenya. ... -1...

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

Final Jomon (1000 - 400 BCE):
Final Jomon (ca. ... (Redirected from 1000 BC) Centuries: 12th century BC - 11th century BC - 10th century BC Decades: 1050s BC 1040s BC 1030s BC 1020s BC 1010s BC - 1000s BC - 990s BC 980s BC 970s BC 960s BC 950s BC Events and Trends 1006 BC - David becomes king of the ancient Israelites (traditional... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC - 400s BC - 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC Years: 405 BC 404 BC 403 BC 402 BC 401 BC - 400 BC - 399 BC 398 BC...

• Angyo 2,
• Angyo 3.

Notes

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ "The earliest known pottery comes from Japan, and is dated to about 10,500 BCE. China and Indo-China follow shortly afterwards" ("Past Worlds" The Times Atlas of Archeology. p. 100, 1995). "That end of the Ice Age was accompanied by the first of the two most decisive changes in Japanese history: the invention of pottery. In the usual experience of archeologists, inventions flow from mainlands to islands, and small peripheral societies aren't supposed to contribute revolutionary advances to the rest of the world. It therefore astonished archeologists to discover that the world's oldest known pottery was made in Japan 12,700 years ago." Jared Diamond, [2]. "Japan, however, was the seat of the earliest known development of ceramics" ("The History and Geography of Human Genes", p249, Cavalli-Sforza ISBN 0691087504. Alternatively, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Timeline of Art History [[3]] notes "Carbon-14 testing of the earliest known shards has yielded a production date of about 10,500 B.C., but because this date falls outside the known chronology of pottery development elsewhere in the world, such an early date is not generally accepted". [[4]].
3. ↑ Calibrated radiocarbon measures of carbonized material from pottery artifacts: Fukui Cave 12500 +/-350 BP and 12500 +/-500 BP (Kamaki&Serizawa 1967), Kamikuroiwa rockshelter 12, 165 +/-350 years BP in Shikoku (Esaka et al. 1967), from "Prehistoric Japan", Keiji Imamura, p46
4. ↑ [5]
5. ↑ "Jomon population densities are among the highest recorded for a foraging population, although in some areas of the Pacific Coast of North America, comparable and even higher figures of population densities have been observed (Hassan, 1975)" "The History and Geography of Human Genes" p249, Cavalli-Sforza ISBN 0691087504.
6. ↑ "The third synthetic map shows a peak in Japan, with rapidly falling concentric gradients... Taken at face value, one would assume a center of demographic expansion in an area located around the Sea of Japan." "The History and Geography of Human Genes" p249, Cavalli-Sforza ISBN 0691087504
7. ↑ "The synthetic maps suggest a previously unsuspected center of expansion from the Sea of Japan but cannot indicate dates. This development could be tied to the Jomon period, but one cannot entirely exclude the pre-Jomon period and that it might be responsible for a migration to the Americas. A major source of food in those pre-agricultural times came from fishing, then as now, and this would have limited for ecological reasons the area of expansion to the coastline, perhaps that of the Sea of Japan, but also father along the Pacific Coast" "The History and Geography of Human Genes" p253, Cavalli-Sforza ISBN 0691087504

Categories: People stubs | 1922 births | Italian people | Population geneticists ... The central lobby of the museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, often referred to simply as The Met, is one of the worlds largest and most important art museums, located on the eastern edge of Central Park in Manhattan, New York, United States. ... The Sea of Japan (East Sea) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. ... Categories: People stubs | 1922 births | Italian people | Population geneticists ... Categories: People stubs | 1922 births | Italian people | Population geneticists ...

See also

• Japanese era name

Japanese era name (年号, nengō, lit. ...

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Category:Jomon

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain. - Japan
• "Prehistoric Japan", by Keiji Imamura, University of Hawai Press, 1996, ISBN 0824818520
• "Subsitence-Settlement systems in intersite variability in the Moroiso Phase of the Early Jomon Period of Japan", Junko Habu, 2001, ISBN 1879621320
• Encyclopedia of Ideas that changed the World, Robert Ingpen and Philip Wilkinson, 1993, ISBN 0670846422
• "The History and Geography of Human Genes", Cavalli-Sforza, ISBN 0691087504

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... The Country Studies are works published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress ( USA), freely available for use by researchers. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Categories: People stubs | 1922 births | Italian people | Population geneticists ...

External links

• Jomon pottery at Current World Archaeology
• Jomon Japan at jomonjapan.org
• EMuseum at Minnesota State University, Mankato The Paleolithic Period/Jomon Period

• *jomonjapan.org