Japanese prehistory
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
Paleolithic Japan
Jōmon period/Neolithic Japan (12,000 BCE-300 BCE)
- 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.
- Pottery