The Jomon peoples of northern Japan were unusual among foraging societies for being great monument-builders. They constructed a range of such sites, including stone circles, settings of wooden pillars, shell middens, and bank-enclosed cemeteries or embankments containing large quantities of material remains, all of which represented an ability to undertake significant investments in labour and probably also a high degree of forward-planning. Both of these abilities are more often associated with agricultural societies than hunter-gatherers. The Jomon monuments suggest an emphasis on ritual and ceremonialism, too, as well as a strong sense of engagement with particular locations in their landscapes. Examining such monuments and the range of activities that could be carried out in their shadow, as well as Jomon settlements, helps shed light on activity in the longest time-period in Japanese archaeology (spanning c.14,500-300 BC, with the stone circles mostly dating to the later phases of c.2500-300 BC). Its importance is reflected in 17 Jomon sites from northern Japan achieving World Heritage status in the summer of 2021.
In Japan, the term ‘stone circle’ is used to describe circular arrangements of stone setting, comprising rings of rocks that vary in weight from just a few kilogrammes to more than 100kg. These are not the megalithic monuments familiar to European readers and seen, for example, at Stonehenge and Avebury in Britain. Even so, the Japanese and European sites do share many attributes, including astronomical alignments, acting as the focus for seasonal ceremonies, and rituals connected with burial and the ancestors. Indeed, this autumn a new exhibition will open at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and prehistoric Japan will introduce some of the stone circles that were constructed towards the end of the Jomon period, and explore little-known links between research at Stonehenge and the history of Japanese archaeology.
The exhibition opens with a focus on William Gowland (1842-1922), a Victorian mining engineer and metallurgist who spent 16 years living in Japan as one of a generation of foreign specialists employed by the Meiji government to modernise Japan. This policy followed some 250 years of self-imposed isolation from the rest of the world during the Edo period (1603-1868, with the policy of seclusion running from the 1620s to 1853), when the country was ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns. Gowland was employed by the newly established Osaka Mint (which is still in operation). While in Japan, he investigated some 400 mounded tombs – some of them megalithic in character – which were constructed between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD.
Lost cities: the unpublished words