Flaming Pots and the Precocious Foragers of Ancient Japan

Simon Kaner, Head, Centre for Archaeology and Heritage, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, and Director, Centre for Japanese Studies, University of East Anglia

Five thousand years ago, along the present-day Shinano River in northern Japan, sedentary communities of Jo ̄mon foragers produced exquisite flame-style pots. Learn about the world of these particularly creative fisher-hunter-gatherers who lived millennia before farming appeared in the Japanese archipelago, and explore some of the oldest pottery yet discovered.