Key terms:

• Iwajuku　 岩宿　(35000 BCE - 12000 BCE)
• Jōmon 　縄文　(12000 BCE - 300 BCE)
• Yayoi 　弥生　(300 BCE - 250 CE)
• Wa　和　倭
• Himiko　卑弥呼　
• dogū
• Yamato　 大和
• Yamatai　 邪馬台

• Where is Japan?
  
• When did humans come to Japan
  • The major influx of humans to Japanese islands occured during the Pleistocene (c.120,000 BCE to 12,000 BCE), when land bridges connected Japan with the Asian mainland.
    • Discovery of Iwajuku Japan by Aizawa (1949)
    • Exposure of Fujimura hoax (2000)
    • Current consensus: roughly 35,000 BCE
      
• Paleolithic life
  • Hunter gatherers
  • People used simple tools to hunt megafauna, such as Naumann elephants.

• Name 'jōmon" comes from pottery
• Sub-periods represent stages of discovery
  
  • Incipient -- 12,000 BCE to 7500 BCE
    
  • Earliest -- 7500 BCE to 5500 BCE
    
  • Early -- 5500 BCE to 3500 BCE
    
  • Middle -- 3500 BCE to 2500 BCE
    
  • Late -- 2500 BCE to 1500 BCE
    
  • Latest -- 1500 BCE to 300 BCE
• Jōmon society
  • Semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers
  • Some simple farming
  • Housing
    
    • Early Jōmon houses were semi-permanent structures with packed dirt floors. Wooden posts were set in holes in the foundation. Roofs were probably thatched.
    • Middle Jōmon period have hearths, suggested that people cooked indoors and heated their homes.
      
• Religion
  • The rulers of Jōmon society were probably shaman-priests
  • Jōmon people had an obvious concern with sex, fertility, and the afterlife, although their exact beliefs are unknown.
• Hierarchy
  • Social stratification was low, but there were kinship and life-cycle rituals.
    
    
• Jōmon physical culture and artifacts
  
  
  • Earthenware figures (dogū): Jōmon period earthenware figures, or dogū survive in a wide variety of regional styles. Most dogū are of women, but subjects include men and animals. Over 15,000 dogū have been found: in some villages they seem to have been common household items.
    • Incipient Jōmon period
    • Middle Jōmon period
    • Latest Jōmon period
      • "Snow goggle" dogū
        
      • Pregnant dogū
        
      • Scarified head
        
      • Wild boar dogū
  • Pottery
    • Incipient Jōmon period
    • Earliest Jōmon period
    • Early Jōmon period
    • Middle Jōmon period
    • Late Jōmon period
      • Kettle
        
    • Latest Jōmon period
      • Incense burner
        
      • Cooking pot -- Tōhoku style
        
      • Cooking pot --- Kyūshū style