Episode 5: Goggle Eyes and Wet Earwax

Reproduction of shakoki style figurine found at Kamegaoka.

This episode will be our final look at the Jomon Period in Japan.  Specifically we are focusing on the northern Jomon, in Tohoku and Hokkaido.  We'll take a brief overview of this northern area throughout the Jomon period, and then focus on the transition from the Middle to Late and Final Jomon periods.

As for the title, see our lovely friend right here—a shakoki, or goggle-style, figurine. Doesn’t she look like some kind of buff, angry alien? This one is a reconstruction of the original, which is actually missing its left leg—broken off in an apparent ritual. Below are some other examples of figurines from northern Japan, along with lacquerware and more.

We also included something we didn’t talk about in the podcast—clay masks, which we also find throughout the archipelago in various shapes and some not even made out of pottery.

And speaking of rituals, here is an article in Atlas Obscura about the Oyu Stone Circles.

We also have a treat this episode--we are getting our best glimpse yet of the people through the DNA of one of the women from Funadomari.  We'll take a look at what we know about her, including what is up with the whole "wet earwax" thing.

BTW, for those who want to better understand the whole “wet earwax” thing, here’s an article on the subject by Dr. John McDonald.

If you enjoy this episode, please feel free to reach out and Tweet or email us, or drop comments in the Comment section, below this post. 

References

  • 2019 Geggel, Laura “Freckled Woman with High Alcohol Tolerance Lived in Japan 3,800 years ago” (https://www.livescience.com/65536-ancient-japanese-woman-genetics.html), Live Science, 22 May 2019

  • 2019 Kanazawa-Kiriyama, Hideaki, et al; “Late Jomon male and female genome sequences from the Funadomari site in Hokkaido, Japan.”  Anthropological Science, 15 April 2019 (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ase/advpub/0/advpub_190415/_pdf/-char/en)

  • 2011 McDonald, J.H., Myths of Human Genetics. Sparky House Publishing, Baltimore, Maryland. https://udel.edu/~mcdonald/mythearwax.html

  • 2003 (June) Togawa, Minako; “The Jomon Clay Figurines of the Kaminabe Site, Kyushu, Japan”

  • 2002 Mizoguchi, Koji; An Archaeological History of Japan: 30,000 B.C. to A.D. 700

  • 2000 Naumann, Nelly; Japanese Prehistory: The Material and Spritual Culture of the Jōmon Period

  • 1988 Barnes, Gina L.; Protohistoric Yamato: Archaeology of the First Japanese State

  • 1996 Aikins, C. Melvin and Akazawa, Takeru, “The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Japan and Adjacent Northeast Asia.” In: Straus L.g., Erksen B.V., Erlandson J.M., Yesner D.R. (eds) Humans at the End of the Ice Age: Interdiciplinary Contributions to Archaeology, pp 215-227, Spring, Boston, MA

  • 1996 Imamura, Keiji; Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia

Episode 4: Jomon vs. the Volcano

Map by:Yug Changed by:Pekachu [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons
Extent of the Kikai Akahoya eruption ash deposits about 7300 years ago.

In this episode we take a look at the Jomon period down in southwest Japan. Although Kyushu appears to have been the birthplace of much of what we consider Jomon culture, the Akahoya Eruption of the Kikai Caldera devastated Kyushu, wiping out the earliest cultures. Life would eventually return, bringing with it cultural artifacts from Honshu.

The Kyushu Jomon culture would move through several different types of settlement patterns and evolve over time, possibly even learning some form of rudimentary agriculture. We’ll talk about the possible connection between the enigmatic figurines and early agriculture.

Towards the end of the Jomon period, we see a new player on the scene: a new culture that we call the Yayoi, from the place in Tokyo where the first pottery from this period is found. This culture, influenced by the mainland, would compete with and eventually overcome or absorb the local Jomon culture, spreading north across Honshu.

By 名古屋太郎 [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons.

Iojima island, part of the Kikai Caldera

References

  • 2013 Pearson, Richard; Ancient Ryukyu. University of Hawai’i Press.

  • 2007 Kaner, Simon and Ishikawa, Takeshi, “Reassessing the concept of the ‘Neolithic’in the Jomon of Western Japan”, Documenta Praehistorica XXXIV (2007) https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/DocumentaPraehistorica/article/view/34.1/1809

  • 2006 Shinto, Koichi; “Jomon Culture in Kagoshima and Uenohara Site”, Archaeological Center of Kagoshima Prefecture, Kokubu, Kirishima, 899-4461 Japan

  • 2003 (June) Togawa, Minako; “The Jomon Clay Figurines of the Kaminabe Site, Kyushu, Japan”

  • 2002 Mizoguchi, Koji; An Archaeological History of Japan: 30,000 B.C. to A.D. 700

  • 1996 Imamura, Keiji; Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia

  • 1996 Aikins, C. Melvin and Akazawa, Takeru, “The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in Japan and Adjacent Northeast Asia.” In: Straus L.g., Erksen B.V., Erlandson J.M., Yesner D.R. (eds) Humans at the End of the Ice Age: Interdiciplinary Contributions to Archaeology, pp 215-227, Spring, Boston, MA