Uenohara in Japan, roughly 11,500 years ago, held 52 huts, at least 16 clay-lined storage pits and tens of thousands of pottery sherds — with no evidence of farming. Its Initial Jōmon inhabitants were sedentary hunter-gatherers subsisting on rich wild foods, including acorns, other nuts and hunted animals. A volcanic eruption buried and preserved the settlement under pumice, Pompeii-style. It challenges the assumption that villages require agriculture. 🏔️🌰
Sedentary hunter-gatherers at Aenohara, Japan, lived without farming c. 9500 BC
JapanGeneral
Site mentioned
Key facts
- Aenohara in Japan dates to about 11,500 years ago and contained the remains of 52 huts, at least 16 clay-lined storage pits and tens of thousands of pottery sherds
- The inhabitants belonged broadly to the Jomon culture and did not practise agriculture, instead using 'broad-spectrum' subsistence in a productive environment
- Storage pit contents showed acorns and other nuts were favoured, alongside hunted animals
- The settlement was preserved when a nearby volcano erupted and buried it under pumice, as at Pompeii
- Used as evidence that sedentism does not necessarily require agriculture, complicating links between farming, villages and organized warfare
Sources
Summary of each archaeological sitejomon-japan.jp
The site is one of the largest settlement sites of the Jomon period (13,000–400 BCE) discovered to date, archaeologists at work in restoring earthenware ...
The Museum,Archaeological Institute of Kashihara,Nara ...japanculturalexpo.bunka.go.jp
Since 1938, the Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, has been conducting archaeological surveys of sites in Nara Prefecture.
Noteworthy Archaeological Sitesarchaeology.jp
Noteworthy Archaeological Sites ; 2025 Maeda Site ; 2025 Kenkōji Site ; 2025 Jōkanzuka Site ; 2025 Sogabosho Site ; 2025 Koyasu / Nakagawara Site.
Uenohara siteen.wikipedia.org
Uenohara Site (上野原遺跡 , Uenohara iseki) is an archeological site with the ruins of a Jōmon period settlement located in the Kokubu neighborhood of the city ...
Utsunomiya Archaeological Siteen.japantravel.com
It features one of the largest reconstructed ancient pit building of its kind in Japan, lashed together with vines, and some smaller ones too.
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