Incipient Jōmon pottery
Cerámica Jōmon incipiente
- Date
- c. 16.5 ka · confidence high
- Place
- Odai Yamamoto I, Aomori, Japan
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens (Jōmon hunter-gatherers)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Undecorated pottery fragments associated with arrowheads, with residues from cooking fish. The beginning of the longest ceramic tradition in history.
Whether it is diffusion from China or independent invention on the archipelago is debated.
What it led to
- Cooking of salmon and shellfish: exploitation of fats
- Hunter-gatherer settlement without agriculture (an exception to the Neolithic model)
- A cord-marked decorative tradition lasting 10,000 years
Built on
- Pottery vessels (Xianrendong)c. 20 ka
- Pottery vessels (Xianrendong)