Archaeology and Travel in Japan
Our own weblog provides travel information and highlights archaeological travel destinations in Japan. We welcome short reports by travellers, and require volunteers to help develop this interactive companion site. If you have interests in archaeology and/or Japan, you can help - from anywhere in the world. Please contact Peter (pjm at gol dot com) (subject line: travel in Japan). Thankyou. For information about specialised tours in Japan - Order FREE Brochure!, or click on the image below for vacations in Asia generally.
Welcome to Jomon Japan
This website introduces Jomon archaeology with information and links for museums and excavated sites throughout Japan. We hope that this will be useful for residents and travellers planning their own journeys in Japan. The huge wealth of archaeological discoveries in Japan is largely unknown to foreign audiences. Our emphasis is on accessible locations and accessible information. See also our INTRODUCTION IN JAPANESE, and the International Jomon Culture Conference, the website of a registered not-for-profit organisation (NPO) based in Tokyo (membership open to any interested person or organisation; website offers both Japanese and English). The Jomon period, from approx. 12,000 years before present (BP) to 2,400 BP, saw relatively rapid expansion in human population in the islands that now make up Japan. Settlements became larger and more numerous, and various introduced and local plants came into cultivation. It seems that most food was obtained by hunting, fishing, and the collection of wild plant foods. The diversity and creativity of Jomon art is hugely appealing to modern audiences and is a source of inspiration to many people, within Japan and abroad. This website will also provide some guidance to early archaeological discoveries in neighbouring areas of Eastern Asia (Korea, China and the Russian Far East). Cultural, linguistic, and political divisions that have arisen during the last two thousand years of recorded history tend to channel discussions of archaeological evidence from earlier millenia. Archaeologists in different areas have naturally adopted separate terminologies and interpretations for similar or related material evidence. Archaeological evidence is inevitably first viewed through the cultural and linguistic lenses of those closest to the discoveries. Time, further evidence, and a sorting out of ideas, are always needed for broader and more widely shared views to emerge. How archaeological evidence is interpreted depends greatly on access to information, and on the experiences of travellers who have been able to see archaeological sites and materials themselves, first hand, in the places where they were discovered. Making archaeology more accessible, literally and figuratively, is our goal. This is an independent and experimental website, leading we hope to better things. Meanwhile, please have patience, and feel free to contact us with any questions about Japanese archaeology, or Jomon archaeology in particular. We are not experts in this field, but we may be able to point you in the right direction. For a good short introduction to Jomon archaeology see Gary Crawford (1996) "Jomon Tradition" In B. F. Fagan et al. (eds) The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, pp. 365 - 367. The great abundance of Japanese archaeological sites can be seen in: A. Ono, H. Harunari, and S. Oda (eds) (1992) Atlas of Japanese Archaeology. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo (in Japanese). Further literature is noted under the "Research" heading in the menu at left.
Geography
In our main menu, at left, each region name leads to a list of prefectures for which we have information. For each prefecture, we provide information and links related to Jomon archaeological sites, exhibitions, and reports. Materials from one prefecture may be displayed in another prefecture, or overseas.
To learn more about the geography of Japan, try the following links:
National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Nara (prefecture boundaries).
A remarkable guide to websites operated by local governments (villages, towns, cities and prefectures) is provided by the Watanabegumi pathing company.
