Ancient Jomon of Japan

by Junko Habu

Despite an incredibly rich prehistory covering nearly ten thousand years, modern coverage of complex hunter-gatherer societies has tended to overlook the Jomon of Japan. This text presents an overview of the archaeology of the Jomon Period between 10,000 and 300 BC within the context of more recent complex hunter-gatherer societies. It bridges the gap between academic traditions in Japanese and Anglo-American archaeology and represents an invaluable source of reflection on the development of human complexity.

Genres: History, Japan, Archaeology, Nonfiction, Japanese History, Prehistory, Asia

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2004

Reviews

[Alli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting, though I did have trouble following some of the anthropology and archaeology specific terms, seeing as I've never had any study of them. This was one of the few books I found in English on the Jomon, who are considered to be the earliest population on the Japanese islands. I became interested in them after seeing an exhibit at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno a few months ago, but there is a lack of English language books written on them. The book was also interesting because the author discussed the differences in Japanese archaeology and Anglo-American, and how those differences affected and continue to affect the level of importance that is placed on items/finds/interpretations of data.

[Elysia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Needed to read it for university, as my friend and I were writing a presentation. I actually didn't need the whole book, just the parts on pots and sculptures, and I read everything anyway because it's very interesting and detailed. It's very clear, and as a non-native english speaker I understood it perfectly, which is a plus for me as I do not know much about archaeology. 10/10 would buy (I had borrowed it from my university library).

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

It does its job in summarising the research done on the Jomon both in Japan and in English-speaking countries before 2004 when the book was published. Naturally, some of the information is outdated but it's still a good starting point for getting familiar with the previous research. It's important to note that the book is written in a strictly academic style, so if you don't have a particular interest in archaeology I'm not sure if you'll manage to get to the end of the book. I like that she uses an accessible language (which isn't necessarily something unexpected given that the target audience isn't strictly the professional archaeologists), but I have to admit that at times the graphs and tables she included in the text (e.g. graphs of probability distribution of calibrated dates) were unnecessary and quite confusing for those who aren't familiar with radiocarbon data reading (including myself). Anyway, major English-language publications on the Jomon are quite rare, so this book is certainly a GEM.

[Chrisl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The culture I'd most like to visit in my time canoe.
My anthro bias is that the Jomon were possibly the first cultural group to reach the Americas from Asia. And subsequently eliminated by following genetic groups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8D...
Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man And The First Americans

[Walker Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Habu is awesome sauce and this book is too!