BEFORE THE PADDY FIELD AND METAL · JŌMON · 14000–900 BCE

Before Yayoi

Jōmon pottery prior to Yayoi villages

Jōmon communities made vessels with elaborated rims that are today compared to flames.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Flame-style Jōmon vessel with a crown of pronounced ceramic volutes — **DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · EXISTING EDITORIAL RESOURCE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

**DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · EXISTING EDITORIAL RESOURCE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

History and context

Before the Yayoi horizon, the Japanese archipelago knew a very long Jōmon history. Its communities combined fishing, hunting, gathering, cultivation and forest management, built durable settlements and produced some of the world’s oldest pottery. In central Japan, flame-style vessels carried clay modelling to extraordinary exuberance.

Towards the end of Jōmon, contacts with the Korean peninsula intensified and, regionally and gradually, irrigated rice and new metal technologies arrived. Yayoi did not replace an empty archipelago overnight: it arose from migrations, mixtures and distinct continuities according to each island and valley.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: Jōmon spans more than ten millennia and shows major regional differences. Interpretation and caution: The exact symbolic meaning of flame forms is not known; describe their visual effect without turning it into a specific deity or myth. Historical transition: Yayoi culture appeared when new populations and agricultural technologies were integrated with Jōmon communities, creating landscapes of rice paddies, villages and regional hierarchies. Limit of the transition: Do not present Jōmon and Yayoi as two closed races nor fix a single transition date for all Japan; the process was long and geographically uneven.

Catalogue facts

Previous period: ca. 14000–900 BCE
Sphere of influence: Japanese archipelago, with focus on central Japan and the first changes in northern Kyūshū
Threshold element: Flame-style Jōmon vessel
Element date: Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE
Location: Iwanohara site, Niigata Prefecture, Japan
Material or support: Modelled and fired pottery
Documented fact 01: Jōmon spans more than ten millennia and shows great regional variation.
Documented fact 02: Flame-style vessels are concentrated in central Japan during the Middle Jōmon.
Documented fact 03: Some spectacular vessels retain traces of fire exposure and practical use.
Documented fact 04: The transition to Yayoi included irrigated rice, metallurgy and population movements.
Documented fact 05: The Yayoi began earlier in Kyūshū and did not occur simultaneously throughout the archipelago.
Visual credit: Netherzone · CC BY-SA 4.0

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

You are viewing

Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE

Before Yayoi

Yayoi Japan

Date of the Jōmon element, not of the entire preceding period.

Current record

Clay32 dated objects

11 / 32In the centre: Before Yayoi

Also connected, without a comparable date (8)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

A White Wall on the DanubeCeltic worlds · 6th century BCE
Blue that does not yieldMaya worlds · Documented use from the Classic, c. 300–1500 CE
Cyrus speaks as king of BabylonAchaemenid Persia · After the conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE
Early potteryMande Worlds · before ca. 9400 cal BCE
Made in GaramaGaramantes · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE
Piece-mold castingAncient China · c. 1600–1046 BCE
The unfinished gestureBatwa / Twa histories · 1947
Vessels without a languageBantu-speaking worlds · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE

You can scroll the first group without JavaScript. The other topics are also available below.

Ceramics

Dolní Věstonice I · ≈29,000–27,000 years · Prehistory
Before Sumer · mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Sumer
Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or · Early Neolithic · VI–V millennia BCE · Prehistory
Before Egypt · ca. 4400–3800 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Before Nubia · V–IV millennium BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Before Gojoseon · Middle Neolithic, c. 4000 BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Bevel-rimmed bowl · ca. 3500–3000 BCE · Sumer
Before Yayoi · Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE · Yayoi Japan — You are viewing
Vasiliki · ca. 2500–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before the Greeks · c. 2400–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Cemetery R-37 · ca. 2550–2030 BCE · Indus civilisation
Before Ancient China · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Longshan · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Kerma vessel · c. 1802–1640 BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Burial at K IV · circa 1750–1550 BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Before Vedic India · c. 1900–1300 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Osmankayası and Ilıca · ca. 1700/1650–1200 BCE · Hittites
Grey bowl from Hastinapura · c. 1100–800 BCE in the classical sequence of Hastinapura · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Before Etruscans and Rome · ca. 850–800 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The urn under the helmet · 9th–8th centuries BCE · Etruscans and Rome
Ceramic stand 1010 · 8th–7th centuries BCE · orientalizing · Iberians
Ishtar Gate · 7th–6th centuries BCE · work of Nebuchadnezzar II · Sumer
Glazed brick guards · 522–486 BCE · Achaemenid Persia
Orpheus among the Thracians · circa 440 BCE; attributed to the London Painter E 497. · Thracians
The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
Thoth in the form of a baboon · 664–30 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Leipzig Fish Plate · Last third 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Greek worlds
Dove of the Amarejo · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Vas dels Guerrers · 3rd–early 2nd century BCE · Iberians
Warriors' Vase · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Iberians
Northern mound · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Yayoi Japan
Kalathos of Alcorisa · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Iberians
Urewe vessel · regional range c. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds
Two rows of coffins · Mainly Middle Yayoi, 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Yayoi Japan
Ceramics that continued · Last third of the 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Iberians
Egyptian oil lamp with a fish, held in Laon · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Ancient Egypt
Laon lamp with fish · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Etruscans and Rome
Kabusanza, ca. 400 · ca. 400 CE · Batwa / Twa histories
Missing grave goods · 13th–15th centuries according to the heritage overview · Bantu-speaking worlds

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

A Kerma vessel deposited at Abydos · Second Intermediate Period · Ancient Egypt
A tradition that invents · collected in 1993 or 1995 · Batwa / Twa histories
A vase travels; the rite changes · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Akrotiri · c. 1700–1500 BCE · Greek worlds
Dia’s strata · 9th century BCE–2nd millennium CE · Mande Worlds
Early pottery · before ca. 9400 cal BCE · Mande Worlds
Jenne-jeno contexts · ca. 250 BCE–1400 CE · Mande Worlds
Liédena Flask · Roman period · individual chronology not published in the entry · Etruscans and Rome
Lothal · ca. 2400–1600 BCE · Indus civilisation
Made in Garama · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE · Garamantes
Nile towards Nubia · ca. 3300–2800 BCE · Ancient Egypt
The unfinished gesture · 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
Three hundred lives in the sand · Mainly 4th century BCE–3rd century CE · Yayoi Japan
Travelling objects · Mainly Roman period · Garamantes
Trumpet from Numantia · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Urns from Adichanallur · Iron Age · samples towards 665 and 467 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Vessels without a language · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds

Vessels

Before Sumer · mid-6th–5th millennium BCE · Sumer
Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or · Early Neolithic · VI–V millennia BCE · Prehistory
Before Egypt · ca. 4400–3800 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Before Nubia · V–IV millennium BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Before Gojoseon · Middle Neolithic, c. 4000 BCE · Gojoseon and early Korea
Bevel-rimmed bowl · ca. 3500–3000 BCE · Sumer
Uruk Vase · ca. 3300–3000 BCE · Sumer
Before Yayoi · Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE · Yayoi Japan — You are viewing
Vasiliki · ca. 2500–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before the Greeks · c. 2400–2200 BCE · Greek worlds
Before Ancient China · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Longshan · c. 2500–2000 BCE · Ancient China
Kerma vessel · c. 1802–1640 BCE · Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Grave Circle A and Chrysolakkos · 18th–16th centuries BCE · Greek worlds
Before Vedic India · c. 1900–1300 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Jue · c. sixteenth century BCE · Ancient China
Pithos · c. 1450–1375 BCE · Greek worlds
Tutankhamun's grave goods · death towards 1323 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Stag Vessel · 14th–13th centuries BCE · Hittites
Valchitran · second half of the 14th century–beginning of the 13th century BCE, according to NAIM; other publications use wider intervals from the Late Bronze. · Thracians
Liding · 12th–11th centuries BCE · Ancient China
Before the Iberias · Final Bronze, c. 1000 BCE · Iberians
Grey bowl from Hastinapura · c. 1100–800 BCE in the classical sequence of Hastinapura · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Before Etruscans and Rome · ca. 850–800 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The urn under the helmet · 9th–8th centuries BCE · Etruscans and Rome
Tomb 1 at Kuntur Wasi · c. 800 BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Regolini-Galassi tomb · ca. 675–650 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The great Greek krater of Vix · ≈530–500 BCE · Greek worlds
Scorțaru cauldron · 6th–5th centuries BCE · Thracians
Vix Tomb · c. 500 BCE · Celtic worlds
Orpheus among the Thracians · circa 440 BCE; attributed to the London Painter E 497. · Thracians
Twenty-six voiceless signs · 5th–4th centuries BCE · Scythians and Saka
Rogozen · mainly 5th–4th centuries BCE; The set has a history of accumulation, not a single manufacturing date. · Thracians
Grave goods of Baza and Toya · First half of the 4th century BCE · Iberians
The Attic krater that took on a new life in Cástulo · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The silver amphora of Chertomlyk · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
The Kul-Oba vase · 4th century BCE · Greek worlds
Faces of the Steppe · Second half of the 4th century BCE · Scythians and Saka
Poroina Mare Rhyton · Second half of the 4th century BCE · Thracians
Borovo · 4th century BC C.; 350–300 BCE in the ISAW catalog. · Thracians
Leipzig Fish Plate · Last third 4th–early 3rd century BCE · Greek worlds
Golyamata Kosmatka · End of the 4th century – beginning of the 3rd century BCE; ritual burial at the beginning of the III according to Iskra. · Thracians
Panagyurishte · late 4th century – early 3rd century BCE, towards 300 BCE · Thracians
Dove of the Amarejo · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Mairena Hoard · 3rd century BCE · Iberians
Vase from Chão de Lamas · Piece: III–II centuries BCE · concealment ≈110–76 BCE · Iberians
Vas dels Guerrers · 3rd–early 2nd century BCE · Iberians
Warriors' Vase · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE · Iberians
The dismantled cauldron · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Celtic worlds
Kalathos of Alcorisa · 2nd–1st centuries BCE · Iberians
Patera from Perotito · Second half of the 2nd–beginnings of the 1st century BCE · Iberians
Urewe vessel · regional range c. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds
Two rows of coffins · Mainly Middle Yayoi, 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Yayoi Japan
Ceramics that continued · Last third of the 2nd century BCE–1st century CE · Iberians
Roman glass oinochoe · Late 1st century BCE–early 1st century CE · Etruscans and Rome
Gladiators Cup of Chavagnes · 25–75 CE · Etruscans and Rome
Egyptian oil lamp with a fish, held in Laon · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Ancient Egypt
Laon lamp with fish · 3rd–4th centuries CE · Etruscans and Rome
Water in a shell · 1816–1826 · San histories

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

A Kerma vessel deposited at Abydos · Second Intermediate Period · Ancient Egypt
A tradition that invents · collected in 1993 or 1995 · Batwa / Twa histories
A vase travels; the rite changes · No individual dating published on this record · Iberians
Early pottery · before ca. 9400 cal BCE · Mande Worlds
Liédena Flask · Roman period · individual chronology not published in the entry · Etruscans and Rome
Made in Garama · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE · Garamantes
Oil in a calabash · ca. 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
The unfinished gesture · 1947 · Batwa / Twa histories
Travelling objects · Mainly Roman period · Garamantes
Urns from Adichanallur · Iron Age · samples towards 665 and 467 BCE · Vedic and later Indian worlds
Vessels without a language · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds

Sculpture

Lion-man · ≈40,000 years · Aurignacian · Prehistory
Lespugue · ≈28,000 years · Prehistory
Zaraysk Bison · ≈23,000–21,000 years · Prehistory
Shigir Idol · C. 10,000 BCE · approximation; debated dating · Prehistory
Warka Mask · End of the 4th millennium BCE · Sumer
Gebel el-Arak knife · 3600–3200 BCE · Naqada II C–D · Ancient Egypt
Uruk Vase · ca. 3300–3000 BCE · Sumer
Narmer Palette · ca. 3100 BCE · Ancient Egypt
Before Yayoi · Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE · Yayoi Japan — You are viewing
Ur-Nanshe relief · Mid-3rd millennium BCE · reign of Ur-Nanshe · Sumer
The goat from PG 1237 · ca. 2600–2400 BCE · Sumer
Stele of the Vultures · Towards 2450–2425 BCE · Sumer
Akkadian sovereign head · Akkadian period · 23rd century BCE · Sumer
Bassetki Statue · Akkadian period · 23rd century BCE · Sumer
Naram-Sin Stele · Reign of Naram-Sin, 2254–2218 BCE · Sumer
Before Pre-Inca Cultures · Kotosh-Mito Tradition, c. 2200–1500 BCE; the enclosure is usually situated around 1800 BCE. · Pre-Inca cultures
Queen of the Night · 19th–18th centuries BCE · Sumer
Bull-leaping · c. 1600–1450 BCE · Greek worlds
Wooden faces · c. 1600–1000 BCE, in several phases · Maya worlds
Head 2 · c. 1200–900 BCE · Maya worlds
The voice of Ahiram · c. 11th–10th century BCE · Phoenicians
Before the Scythians and Sakas · Final Bronze–Initial Iron, ca. 1200–600 BCE · Scythians and Saka
Black Obelisk · 825 BCE · Sumer
Ivory in Nimrud · 9th–8th centuries BCE · Phoenicians
Las Limas · c. 1000–600 BCE · Maya worlds
Astarte from El Carambolo · 8th century BCE · Phoenicians
Astarte from El Carambolo · 8th century BCE · Iberians
Lamassu of Khorsabad · Reign of Sargon II · 721–705 BCE · Sumer
The Lanzón · c. 900–500 BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Stele of Esarhaddon · 7th century BC C. · 671 campaign BCE · Sumer
The so-called ‘Priest of Cádiz’ · 7th century BCE · Phoenicians
The so-called ‘Priest of Cádiz’ · 7th century BCE · Iberians
The Tello Obelisk · c. 800–500 BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Ashurbanipal Hunt · 645–635 BCE · Sumer
Heads on the wall · c. 800–300 BCE · Pre-Inca cultures
Two voices in an urn · 530–520 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
The god on the roof · Towards 510–500 BCE · Etruscans and Rome
Glazed brick guards · 522–486 BCE · Achaemenid Persia
Twenty-three delegations · 6th–5th centuries BCE, mainly under Darius and Xerxes · Achaemenid Persia
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar · first quarter of the 5th century BCE · Phoenicians
The statue was the urn · First half of the 4th century BCE · Iberians
The Raimondi Stele · c. 400–200 BCE according to MNAAHP · Pre-Inca cultures
Torreáguila fountain spout · 101–125 CE · Etruscans and Rome
The date of 292 · 292 CE · Maya worlds
Articulated doll from Tarragona · Late 3rd–4th century CE · Etruscans and Rome
Seven heads · c. 500–700 CE · Bantu-speaking worlds
Seated figure · 13th century, date attributed by the museum · Mande Worlds
Gold rhinoceros · ca. 1220–1290; found in 1933 · Bantu-speaking worlds
Zimbabwe birds · main period of Great Zimbabwe, c. 12th–15th centuries · Bantu-speaking worlds
Kongo crucifix · 16th–17th centuries · Bantu-speaking worlds
Kuba ndop · ca. 1760 · Bantu-speaking worlds

Without a comparable date (not part of the chronological order):

Before Persia · Central core c. seventeenth century BCE; Neo-Elamite additions between the ninth and sixth centuries BCE · Achaemenid Persia
Lararium of Vilauba · Roman period · Etruscans and Rome
The Thracian Horseman · Roman era · diffusion especially in the 2nd–3rd centuries CE · Thracians

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

A shape that also cooked

The Tokamachi Museum places the formation of the flame style towards 3300 BCE in the middle Shinano basin and its disappearance around 2800 BCE. Thereafter, forms related to southern Tōhoku and northern Nagano predominated: potters never worked in isolation from their neighbours. Despite their spectacular relief, these vessels should not automatically be separated from cooking. Interior adherences indicate cooking; their participation in festivals remains a possibility without equivalent demonstration. Beauty, domestic labour and regional links could coexist in the same vessel.

Museum · Tokamachi City Museum · Flame-type potteryAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

The region before this culture

ca. 14000–900 BCE · Japanese archipelago, with focus on central Japan and the first changes in northern Kyūshū

from c. 14000 BCE · Debated
The long Jōmon
Pottery and diversified economies accompanied communities adapting to coasts, mountains and forests.
c. 3400–2400 BCE · Documented
The clay becomes flame
In the Shinano region, vessels with dynamic crowns appear in domestic and ritualised contexts.
before c. 900 BCE · Debated
Contacts heralding change
Exchanges and population movements prepared the uneven adoption of wet rice and metal.

What changes and what we should not assume

Yayoi culture appeared when new populations and agricultural technologies were integrated with Jōmon communities, creating landscapes of rice paddies, villages and regional hierarchies.

Do not present Jōmon and Yayoi as two closed races nor fix a single transition date for all Japan; the process was long and geographically uneven.

Flame-style Jōmon vessel

Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE · Iwanohara site, Niigata Prefecture, Japan

Its crown of volutes seems to freeze water, fire or movement over a vessel that could also participate in daily life. Traces of use remind us that spectacularity was not separate from cooking or gathering the community. It is a perfect object for dismantling the idea that Japanese complexity began with Yayoi.

Jōmon spans more than ten millennia and shows great regional variation.

The exact symbolic meaning of flame forms is not known; describe their visual effect without turning them into a specific deity or myth.

Modelled and fired pottery

Wikimedia Commons · record of Flame-style Jōmon vessel · Netherzone · CC BY-SA 4.0

Documented fact 01: Jōmon spans more than ten millennia and shows great regional variation.
Documented fact 02: Flame-style vessels are concentrated in central Japan during the Middle Jōmon.
Documented fact 03: Some spectacular vessels retain traces of fire exposure and practical use.
Documented fact 04: The transition to Yayoi included irrigated rice, metallurgy and population movements.
Documented fact 05: The Yayoi began earlier in Kyūshū and did not occur simultaneously throughout the archipelago.

Where it is held

Tōkamachi City Museum

Item or group in the record · Permanent exhibition

Exhibition dedicated to flame-style pottery.

The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.

Sources and references

Expand this antecedent and consult its sources

Did you enjoy this exhibit?

Your opinion helps us improve the museum. You can change it whenever you like.

Loading your rating…

History and context

Evidence and interpretation

Catalogue facts

Before Yayoi

Dolní Věstonice I

Before Sumer

Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or

Before Egypt

Before Nubia

Before Gojoseon

Bevel-rimmed bowl

Susa accounting bulla

Jemdet Nasr

Account of malt and barley

Before Yayoi

Vasiliki

Before Ancient China

Longshan

Before the Hittites

Before Pre-Inca Cultures

Queen of the Night

Plimpton 322

Sumerian King List

Love song to Shu-Sin

Si.427 tablet

Phaistos Disc

Sumerian Flood of Nippur

Boğazköy Archive

Linear B

Alaksandu of Wilusa

Treaty with Egypt

Flood Tablet

Babylonian map of the world

Glazed brick guards

Rations for women and children

Urewe vessel

A closer look

A shape that also cooked

The region before this culture

The long Jōmon

The clay becomes flame

Contacts heralding change

What changes and what we should not assume

Flame-style Jōmon vessel

Where it is held

Tōkamachi City Museum

Sources and references

Did you enjoy this exhibit?