For over 10,000 years the Japanese archipelago was occupied by people who lived by fishing, gathering and hunting, obtaining a broad range of foodstuffs, especially nuts, shellfish, boar and deer from the rich environments of forest and coast.
Unlike most prehistoric foragers, these people made pottery and lived relatively settled lives. This pottery, including elaborately sculptured vessels, was often decorated with impressions of twisted cords, the 'jomon' that give the period its name.
The Jomon people also made fine objects of lacquer and of jadeite and obsidian which they obtained by trade over long distances. They had a highly developed ritual life through which they expressed their place in the natural world, using a variety of ceremonial artefacts, notably clay figurines.
