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The islands before writing: Jōmon foragers, then Yayoi rice, bronze and the first chiefdoms.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

Jōmon & Yayoi Japan · c. 14,000 BC–300 AD
縄文・弥生 · Before the State

Prehistoric Japan

From the ice-age hunters who made some of the world's oldest pottery, through twelve thousand years of Jōmon foragers with their cord-marked jars and clay figurines, to the coming of wet-rice farming, bronze and iron with the Yayoi, and the first Japanese chiefdoms glimpsed in the records of China. Slide across the long dawn of the islands, before writing and before emperors.

14000 BC
The Jōmon Period
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14000 BC

The Jōmon Period
  • Cultural

    The world's oldest pottery

    Flame-style Jōmon earthenware vessel, among the world's oldest pottery
    Via Wikimedia Commons

    As the ice age ends, hunter-gatherers in the Japanese islands make cord-marked pots — among the earliest ceramics ever found.

7 milestones
Full Chronicle

Prehistoric Japan

From the ice-age hunters who made some of the world's oldest pottery, through twelve thousand years of Jōmon foragers with their cord-marked jars and clay figurines, to the coming of wet-rice farming, bronze and iron with the Yayoi, and the first Japanese chiefdoms glimpsed in the records of China. Slide across the long dawn of the islands, before writing and before emperors.

  1. The Jōmon Period

    • The world's oldest pottery

      As the ice age ends, hunter-gatherers in the Japanese islands make cord-marked pots — among the earliest ceramics ever found.

  2. The Jōmon Period

    • Villages of the foragers

      Jōmon communities such as Sannai-Maruyama grow into large, settled villages living on nuts, fish and game.

  3. The Jōmon Period

    • The dogū figurines

      Late Jōmon artisans shape enigmatic clay figurines, the dogū, with goggle-eyes and elaborate bodies.

  4. The Yayoi Period

    • Rice, bronze and iron arrive

      Migrants from the Asian mainland bring wet-rice paddy farming and metalworking, opening the Yayoi age.

  5. The Yayoi Period

    • Chiefdoms and bronze bells

      Moated villages compete for land and water, and communities cast great ceremonial bronze bells, the dōtaku.

  6. The Yayoi Period

    • The gold seal of Na

      The Chinese Han court grants a gold seal to an envoy from the country of Na — Japan's first appearance in written history.

  7. Queen Himiko

    • Himiko, shaman-queen of Yamatai

      The Chinese chronicles describe Himiko, a shaman-queen who ruled the land of Yamatai and sent tribute to the Wei court.