Table of Contents
EarlyHumans tells Japan’s Jomon age as a way of life that began while the islands were still joined to Asia and continued after rising seas left them reachable only by boat. Crossings, in this account, go back around 35,000 BC. Widely accepted Paleolithic sites start with finds from 1946, mostly on coasts where fishing and foraging were easy. Forests and nuts were abundant, dangerous animals were few, and villages could stay put long before farming mattered. The narrator says some scholars doubt this culture farmed widely at all. A cooler climate after about 1500 BC makes sites scarcer. What remains famous is the art: clay figures with large eyes, often missing a limb, about fifteen thousand of them in the east, plus wooden images and simple stone rings. Pot shapes change by district and century. The dead lay in rows, and children sometimes in large clay coffins. Metal, broader farming, and keyhole tombs are credited to later Yayoi and Kofun times and to contact with China and Korea.
Key points
- The Jomon age is placed first on a peninsula still linked to Asia, then on islands reached only by boat.
- Coastal foraging supported settled villages long before farming was common, and some scholars doubt it ever was widespread.
- A cooler spell after about 1500 BC is said to shrink the number of known sites.
- Clay figures, often broken, wooden images, and stone rings are presented as the culture’s best known remains.
- Pottery shifts from simple pointed bases to elaborate rims and spouted vessels as the centuries pass.
- Metal, rice agriculture, and keyhole burial mounds are tied to later ages and to contact with China and Korea.
Short quotes
The land bridges disappeared and the Japanese islands became accessible only by way of boat.
EarlyHumans, EarlyHumans on the Jomon age
After the ice melted, the narrator says Japan could be reached only by water. Watch at 2:07
There were very few dangerous animals native to the Japanese islands and resources were plentiful.
EarlyHumans, EarlyHumans on the Jomon age
Easy food and few predators are offered as the reason early life stayed stable. Watch at 4:39
The figures are widespread across sites in Eastern Japan, and around 15,000 figures have been unearthed from across the country.
EarlyHumans, EarlyHumans on the Jomon age
The clay figures are described as common, especially in the east of the country. Watch at 8:30
Wooden figurines resembling animals and people are among them, as are basic stone circles.
EarlyHumans, EarlyHumans on the Jomon age
Wood carvings and simple stone rings are listed with the other ritual objects. Watch at 15:39
Metal was soon broadly utilized across the country as a tougher construction material which arrived via China.
EarlyHumans, EarlyHumans on the Jomon age
Later metalworking is traced to contact with China rather than to the earliest villages. Watch at 17:41
Video by EarlyHumans. Watch on YouTube.