History of Japan

The history of Japan seems to start around 500,000 BCE, date when the earliest stone tool implements have been found. Following the last ice-age, the rich ecosystem of the archipelago apparently fostered human development rather earlier than in other geographical areas, yielding the earliest polished stone tools, and to this date, the earliest known pottery in the world. The history of Japan is then punctuated by an alternance of long periods of isolation and periods of radical, often revolutionary, influences from the rest of the world.

Japanese Pre-History

Paleolithic

Main article: Japanese Paleolithic

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The Japanese Paleolithic covers a period from around 500,000 BCE, when the earliest stone tool implements have been found, to around 12,000 BCE, at the end of the last ice age, which corresponds to the beginning of the Mesolithic Jomon Period. The Japanese paleolithic is characterized by the apparition of the earliest polished stone tools in the world, around 30,000 BCE.

Related Topics:
Stone tool - Ice age - Jomon

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Jomon Period

Main article: Jomon

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The Jomon period (Japanese: 縄文時代 Jōmon-jidai) lasted from about 10,000 BC to 300 BC. Stable living patterns gave rise by around 10,000 BC to a Mesolithic or, as some scholars argue, Neolithic culture. Possibly distant ancestors of the Ainu aboriginal people of modern Japan, members of the heterogeneous Jomon culture (c. 10,000-300 BC) left the clearest archaeological record.

Related Topics:
Jomon - Japanese - 10,000 BC - 300 BC - Mesolithic - Neolithic - Ainu

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According to archeological evidence, the Jomon people created the earliest known pottery in the world, dated to the 11th millennium BC. The Jomon people were making clay figures and vessels decorated with patterns made by impressing the wet clay with braided or unbraided cord and sticks with a growing sophistication.

Related Topics:
Pottery - 11th millennium BC

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Yayoi Period

Main article: Yayoi

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Yayoi (弥生時代) is an era in that is believed to have lasted from about 900 BC to AD 250. It is named after the section of Tokyo where archaeological investigations uncovered its first recognized traces. The Yayoi period is marked either by the start of the practice of growing rice in a paddy field or a new Yayoi style earthenware.

Related Topics:
900 BC - 250 - Tokyo

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