The Jomon Period in Wakayama and Japan

Subperiods of the Jomon Period

I have learned the Jomon Period is generally divided into the next six periods.

the incipient Jomon Period: 16,500 to 11,500 years ago
the initial Jomon Period: 11,500 to 7,000 years ago
the early Jomon Period: 7,000 to 5,500 years ago
the middle Jomon Period: 5,500 to 4,400 years ago
the late Jomon Period: 4,400 to 3,200 years ago
the final Jomon Period: 3,200 to 2,300 years ago

◇ The Jomon Period in Japan is correspond to the New Stone Age in the world.

Outline of the Jomon Period

What I have learned on this topic is as follows.

When the global climate drastically began to change into warmer one around 11,700 years ago, natural environment around the Japanese Islands also turned into temperate one. That was the beginning of the Holocene epoch.
- Sea level rose and the Japanese Islands were perfectly detached from the continent.
- Large-sized animals became extinct and middle-sized animals like sika deer and wild bores thrived.
Jomon people were hunter-gatherers.
- They hunted middle-sized and small-sized animals in deciduous broad-leaved forests and evergreen broad-leaved forests by using bow and arrows, and others.
- They gathered fish including shellfish and edible wild plants.
- They were able to cook food with rudimentary earthenware called "Jomon pottery."
- It is said that they did not make wars.
- Jomon people used earthen vessels, flint arrowheads, bone fishing hooks, ground stone tools and others.
- They built pit dwellings and settled down there.
- They seem to have conducted some ceremonies by using stone sticks and small humanoids called dogu 土偶.
The Jomon Period lasted for as long as 9,000 years.
- In other words, the period continued for 90 centuries.
- Environmental conditions during the Jomon period were not always the same and rather cold stages sometimes elapsed.
- Sea level kept on rising until around 7,000 years ago and the highest one was a few meters higher than the present one. As a result, flatlands were formed at the mouths of rivers.
- Climate change including volcanic activity directly affected Jomon people's life. They must have been in awe of nature.
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Vegetation in the Jomon Period

What I have learned on this topic is as follows.

Evergreem broad-leaved forests in the warm temperate zone including evergreen oak trees, Japanese chinquapins and campphor trees stretched in the west of Toakai and Hokuriku.
Deciduous broad-leaved forests together with abundant nuts such as acorns spread in the eatern part of Honshu and the southern part of Hokkaido.
- Currently, about 85 percent of all 76,000 archeological sites of settlements and 2,100 excavated shell mounds out of 2,500 in Japan are in Eastern Japan.
Confierous forests extended in the northern part of Hokkaido.

Invention of Earthenware

What I have learned about Jomon ware is as follows

Jomon ware was unglazed pottery fired between 600 ℃ and 800 ℃.
It is a reddish soft earthenware with iron oxidized.
The earthen vessels were waterproof and resistant to fire.
They were used to preserve and cook food.
They brought a better and stabler lifestyle than before to Jomon people.
Jomon ware is one of the oldest pottery in the world.

Change of Jomon Pottery.

What I have learned about the variation of Jomon ware is as follows.

In the initial Jomon Period, the most earthen vessels were deep pots with a tapering base. And in the second half, flat-bottomed vessels increased.
In the early Jomon Period, flat-bottomed ones became common.
In the middle Jomon Period, splendid ones were produced.

Tools and Techniques in the Jomon Period

What I have learned on this topic is as follows.

Ground stone tools.
- They were used to cut down trees and process things.
- Parts of pit dwellings were produced by using ground stone tools.
- Jomon people utilized ground stone tools to form dugout canoes, too.
Bows and arrows
- Spears in the Old Stone Age were not used anymore.
- Jomon hunters were able to shoot wild boars and deer from a distance by using branch bows an arrows with light flont arrowheads attached.
- Hunting dogs appeared in the initial Jomon Period.
Japanese lacquer
- A lacqered bracelet in the initial Jomon Period was found in Hakodate, Hokkaido.
- Japanese lacquer spread over districts along the coast of the Sea of Japan.
- Japanese lacquer was unique to the Japanese Islands.

Dwellings and others in the Jomon Period

What I have learned on this topic is as follows.

Pit dwellings shows Jomon people's permanent residency. They seem to have attached importance to protection against the cold.
Huts with posts erected in the ground. Raised-floor constructions also existed. Those huts appeared in the early Jomon Period and became common in the middle Jomon Period. They are thought to have been warehouses or sheds.
Others were storage pits, cemeteries, watering places for removing harsh taste from plant food and so on.

Dietary Habits of Jomon People

What I have learned on this topic is as follows.

Nuts were the staple diet. Around 80 percent of total calories are thought to have been from the one-seeded indehiscent fruits in the Jomon Period.
They were acorns, chestnuts, Japanese horse chestnuts, chinquapins and others. They contain high calories which are close to those of grain.
Other plant foods were yams, brood buds, rhizomes, bracken fern, kudzu vines and so on.
As mentioned above, they also ate wild boar, deer and others. In the late Jomon Period, people began to keep wild boars.
In addition, fish and shellfish were important in some locations. They ate fish such as sea breams, Japanese seabass, tuna, horse mackerels, sardines. They also consumed shellfish like Japanese littlenecks, clams, oysters, freshwater clams.

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