c. Japan. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History

The Encyclopedia of World History. 2001.


c. Japan

The later prehistory of Japan is dominated by the Jomon culture, a common cultural tradition that linked many ethnic groups in the archipelago and flourished from 10,500 B.C.E. to 300 C.E. Jomon people were hunters and fisherfolk, remarkable for their fine clay vessels, the earliest in the world. They developed an elaborate technology for processing and storing huge stocks of nuts, an activity that may have combined with the cultivation of milletlike plants.	1
The basis for what was to become traditional Japanese society was formed during the Yayoi Period, which began after 300 C.E., when large-scale rice agriculture and new technologies spread through the archipelago. Japan was unified into a single state in about 600 C.E., by which time stratified, complex societies were commonplace.	2


The Encyclopedia of World History, Sixth edition. Peter N. Stearns, general editor. Copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Maps by Mary Reilly, copyright © 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.