Jōmon: the world's oldest pottery

Hunter-gatherers on the Japanese islands made some of the world’s oldest pottery – with flame-like rims and cord-marked patterns.

Jōmon means ‘cord-marked’, after the patterns pressed into the wet clay with twisted cords. The culture lasted for more than ten thousand years, and its pottery is among the oldest in the world.

In the Middle Jōmon period the flame-style vessels, kaen doki, were made, with rims that look like fire or waves. They were probably used both for cooking and for rituals.

Clay figurines, dogū, with large eyes like snow goggles and bodies covered in patterns, were made by the thousand. Most are found broken, probably deliberately – perhaps to cure illness or in fertility rites.