"Ancient Jomon of Japan", summary of chapter 6

Author: * Aria Murasaka - 10 Posts on this thread out of 824 Posts sitewide.
Date: Jul 18, 2007 - 17:52

Chapter 6

This is a a summary of Chapter 6 of Habu Jinko, "Ancient Jomon of Japan", Cambridge Press, 2004. It is not meant to be an original work (although it is written in my own words), but merely to sum up the information found in the part described and serve as reference for further research. This is part of my work towards a comprehensive, original article on Jomon culture

Jomon crafts and exchange networks have also been the subject of relatively little attention until recently. However those are essential matters to help figure out the development of cultures like that of the Jomon

As it is known by anyone conducting even superficial research on the subject, the Jomon culture is characterized by its pottery, produced in unusually high numbers compared to other hunter-gatherers people; also, it is its great sophistication that has captivated archeologists but, so far, pottery has been studied mostly in keeping with the typology first presented in the 1930s by Yamanouchi. Habu considers the different types of vessels which are usually divided into four main categories (deep bowls and jars, shallow bowls, vessels with narrow mouth and vessels with spout). Of them, the deep bowl is the most common and dates back to Incipient Jomon; its form evolved over time. The shallow bowl appears in the Early Jomon, and the lamp shape during the Middle Jomon, but real form diversication came in the Late and Final Jomon; it's also then that coarse pottery makes its appearance: those are the two most fundamental changes in pottery assemblages. Shallow bowls are believed to have been mostly ceremonial then, unlike deep bowls before, and coarse pottery shows signs of wear finely decorated pottery doesn't during the Late and Final Jomon. Those changes may be directly related to the changes in rituals observed previously. Also to be noted is that, while changes in Eastern Japan seem to be indigenous, those in Western Japan may have been influenced by the neighbouring Korean peninsula, where the simplification of pottery decoration just preceeds that in Western Japan, which in turns looks similar to the later Yayoi pottery

Another change through time is regional variability, going from barely noticable during the Incipient Jomon; during Initial Jomon, Japan is mostly divided into to style zones, with the dowel-impressed pottery west and the shell-incised pottery east. The greatest regional variability was established during the Early Jomon and its six stylistic zones and lasted through the first half of the Late Jomon, when the east developed a more homogeneous style; in the Final Jomon, it was back to two styles zones, one for the west and one for the east. It was assumed that those later stages were related to a greater sense of "group identity", but the fact that this transition occurs at the same time as the ritual and pottery changes should also be taken in consideration. Chemical analysis suggests that a great majority of vessels during the Early and Middle Jomon were produced locally, while it could be far from being the case in some Late and Final Jomon settlements. The great quality of the fine pottery, their thin walls and the fact that they were fired at higher temperatures than during previous periods suggests a specialization in production at a certain number of sites

When it comes to perishable items, occasionally recovered from waterlogged sites, only lacquerware has been studied for several decades; it is only recently that the archaeologists came to the conclusion that the Jomon people produced textils and quite a few pieces have been since found. Actually, it seems that lacquer technics were used on textils as early as the Initial Jomon. Because of the time recquired to produce lacquer, this was probably done at specialized sites, or at least by specialists at relatively long term settlements

Other materials are particularly interesting for what they reveal of the trade during the Jomon period. Obsidian, in that regard, is of particular interest because it's possible, through scientific methods, to locate its origins and date it precisely. It was traded already during the Incipient Jomon, but it is in the later stages of the Early Jomon that it begun to be redistributed through trade centers. However, the great number of obsidian sources makes it difficult to point to the exact origin, unlike jade for which sources are limited. The earliest item known which was made of jade dates back to the Early Jomon, and most of them came from the Itoigawa sources; the raw material was processed at various production sites located in the vicinity, although it appears some weren't. Jade is mostly associated with larger settlements during the Middle Jomon, when they were most common; the amount of jade found disminishes in the Late Jomon before rising again during the Final Jomon, with production centers located this time throughout Eastern Japan. It is believed that what was traded during the Middle Jomon were finished beads and various other items, while what was traded during the Final Jomon was mostly raw material

Late and Final Jomon layers have revealed what are considered "evaporation pots" for salt; at any rate, their walls were unusually thin and they show signs of repeated heating and had no decoration. They were identified as evaporation pots because of the residue left on the first examples excavated in the 1960s: at several sites, evaporation pots represented actually the majority of the artefacts recovered, leading them to be labelled as salt production sites. These are also associated pits and ash layers believed to be hearths used for salt production. Small quantities of evaporation pots were found as far inland as 100km away from coast and are believed to be proof of trade between sites. Other materials like amber, cinnabar and exotic shells were recovered from a number of sites; of them, shells were the ones found far away from their sources. There's also evidence of trade of items made out of more common material: the Middle Jomon site of Ozaki has been identified as a site specialized in the fabrication of polished stone axes, with a great proportion of both finished and unfinished axes, whetstones and hammerstones (both needed for the production of stone axes unlike that of any other Middle Jomon site of the region; more production sites for similar items have been identified in other regions, as well as for other types of tools and ceremonial and accessory items. Production sites appear at least during the Early Jomon, with also the earliest dugout canoe dating back to that period, hinting at possible transportation available for these goods

To sum it up:

- two major changes in pottery assemblage during the Early and the Late Jomon

- regional styles established by the Early Jomon, convergeance by the Late Jomon

- presence of lacquerware, which is an indication of a high level of technology by the Early Jomon, culminating in the Late and Final Jomon

- evidence of long distance trade

What seems important to underline is that patterns don't necessarily increase in complexity with time but there's an increase in organizational complexity which seems to go alongside the development of long-distance exchange networks during the Early and Middle Jomon (obsidian and jade); probably other developments occured with the increased use of commodities like asphalt and the production/distribution of salt during the Late and Final Jomon, like the emergeance of hereditaries social inequalities at the time