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Walking Tour of Sannai Maruyama

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Jomon Ceramics
Applique Pot, Middle Jomon, Sannai Maruyama Site

Applique Pot, Middle Jomon, Sannai Maruyama Site

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Over 14,000 crates of artifacts have been excavated from Sannai Maruyama, primarily stone and bone tools. Pottery from the early Jomon period include Ento style pots, which are cord-marked bucket-shaped pots with a wide opening. Middle Jomon pots are appliquéd, like the one in the photograph.

Stone tools include arrowheads, awls, and polished stone axes. Because of the preservation in the midden, bone fishhooks and harpoon heads, bone needles and awls were found, as were basketry and bright red lacquerwares.

More than 1500 clay figurines or figurine fragments have been found at Sannai Maruyama, including boar effigies, crown-shapes, triangular clay objects, miniature pottery vessels, and stylized human effigies, flat, cross-shaped illustrated with faces, chests and bellybuttons. Personal ornaments found include clay and stone pendants and earrings.

Exotic materials include obsidian from Hokkaido and Nagano prefecture, some 580 kilometers away; and bitumen, used for arrowshaft hafting, from 200 kilometers away. Jade from Niigata prefecture some 500 kilometers away, was found in unworked pieces, jade beads and uncompleted jade beads, leading the excavators to believe a jade bead workshop was located at the site.

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