UNESCO · Cultural · 2021
Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan
北海道・北東北の縄文遺跡群ほっかいどう・きたとうほくのじょうもんいせきぐんHokkaidō, Kita-Tōhoku no Jōmon Iseki-gunTen thousand years of settled life without farming
The Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan are 17 archaeological sites in southern Hokkaido and the prefectures of Aomori, Iwate and Akita that document more than 10,000 years of the Jomon culture, a settled society of hunters, fishers and gatherers with a rich spiritual life. They were inscribed in 2021.
Overview
The Jomon period, named after the cord-marked patterns (jomon) on its pottery, lasted from around 13,000 BCE to about 400 BCE. Its people made some of the world's earliest pottery and lived in permanent villages for thousands of years, yet did not take up farming. They relied on the rich forests, rivers and seas of the Japanese archipelago: chestnuts and walnuts, deer and boar, salmon, shellfish and marine mammals.
Northern Japan, where the cold Oyashio and warm Tsushima currents meet and the Tsugaru Strait links Hokkaido with Honshu, formed a single cultural sphere with especially dense settlement. The 17 components were chosen to show the whole development of sedentism: the beginning of settlement, its development and maturity, and its adaptation to a changing climate, together with the growth of ritual — cemeteries, earthworks and large stone circles.
The best-known site is Sannai Maruyama in Aomori, a village inhabited for some 1,700 years with pit dwellings, storehouses, burial rows and a structure raised on six huge chestnut posts. Other components include the Oyu Stone Circles in Akita, the Kamegaoka site that yielded the famous goggle-eyed dogu figurine, and the Kakinoshima site in Hakodate with some of the oldest lacquered objects known.
Why it is World Heritage
UNESCO recognised two criteria. The sites bear exceptional testimony to a prehistoric sedentary hunter-fisher-gatherer society that nurtured a complex spiritual culture, as seen in clay tablets with footprints, the goggle-eyed dogu figurines, graves, ritual deposits, earthen mounds and stone circles (criterion iii).
They are an outstanding example of a sedentary mode of settlement and land use, from its emergence through its development and maturity, in which people maintained a hunting, fishing and gathering way of life for millennia by adapting to climate change without transforming the land as farming societies did (criterion v).
Component sites
- 三内丸山遺跡Sannai Maruyama Iseki
Large settlement in Aomori City occupied from about 3900 to 2200 BCE, with pit dwellings, a long house, storage pits, rows of graves and a reconstructed structure on six chestnut pillars about 1 m in diameter.
Odai Yamamoto Site
大平山元遺跡Ōdai Yamamoto IsekiSite in Sotogahama where pottery fragments dated to around 13,000 BCE were found, among the oldest in East Asia, marking the beginning of the Jomon period.
- 垣ノ島遺跡・大船遺跡Kakinoshima Iseki, Ōfune Iseki
Coastal settlements in Hakodate: Kakinoshima has a large U-shaped earthwork and yielded lacquered textiles and clay tablets with children's footprints; Ofune has unusually deep pit dwellings.
Oyu Stone Circles
大湯環状列石Ōyu Kanjō RessekiTwo large stone circles in Kazuno, Akita, the Manza and Nonakado circles, each with a sundial-like stone arrangement and aligned with the midsummer sunset.
Komakino and Omori Katsuyama stone circles
小牧野遺跡・大森勝山遺跡Komakino Iseki, Ōmori Katsuyama IsekiRitual stone circles in Aomori City and Hirosaki; Omori Katsuyama is aligned towards Mount Iwaki at the winter solstice.
Kamegaoka Burial Site
亀ヶ岡石器時代遺跡Kamegaoka Sekki Jidai IsekiBurial site in Tsugaru where the goggle-eyed dogu (shakoki dogu), the best-known Jomon figurine, was found; the site gave its name to the elaborate late-Jomon Kamegaoka culture.
- 是川遺跡Korekawa Iseki
Late Jomon settlement in Hachinohe with waterlogged deposits that preserved red lacquerware, wooden bows and baskets.
Goshono Site
御所野遺跡Goshono IsekiHilltop village in Ichinohe, Iwate, where excavations showed that pit dwellings had earth-covered roofs; several have been reconstructed on this evidence.
History
c. 13,000 BCE
Earliest pottery at Odai Yamamoto; the Jomon period begins.
c. 7000 BCE
Permanent settlements with cemeteries appear, as at Kakinoshima.
c. 3900–2200 BCE
Sannai Maruyama flourishes as one of the largest Jomon villages.
c. 2000 BCE
Stone circles such as Oyu and Komakino are built as ritual centres.
c. 1000–400 BCE
The Kamegaoka culture produces refined lacquerware and dogu figurines.
1992
Excavations for a baseball stadium reveal the full extent of Sannai Maruyama, leading to its preservation.
2021
Inscription on the World Heritage List.
Visiting
- Sannai Maruyama is on the outskirts of Aomori City, reached by bus from Aomori or Shin-Aomori stations; its museum displays thousands of finds and the site has reconstructed dwellings.
- The components are spread over four prefectures and many are in rural areas; a car is the most practical way to combine several of them.
- Most sites have visitor centres or local museums; Korekawa's finds are shown at the Korekawa Jomon Museum in Hachinohe, and Kakinoshima's at the Hakodate Jomon Culture Center.
- Winters in northern Japan are snowy; some outdoor sites and facilities have restricted access in the cold season.
Frequently asked questions
What does Jomon mean?
Jomon means 'cord pattern' and refers to the impressions made by pressing twisted cords into the surface of the period's pottery.
Why is the Jomon culture unusual?
Its people lived in permanent villages and made pottery for more than 10,000 years without adopting agriculture, which elsewhere in the world usually accompanied settled life.
Where can the goggle-eyed dogu be seen?
The figurine from Kamegaoka is held by the Tokyo National Museum; replicas and other dogu are displayed at local museums in Tsugaru.
Which is the best Jomon site to visit?
Sannai Maruyama in Aomori gives the most complete impression, with reconstructed buildings, excavated areas under shelter and a large museum.
Related
Sources
- 1.Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan (opens in a new tab) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- 2.日本の世界遺産一覧 (opens in a new tab) — 文化庁
- 3.北海道・北東北の縄文遺跡群 (opens in a new tab) — 縄文遺跡群世界遺産保存活用協議会