Deep Vessel with Protuberances

During the Jōmon period, vessels of various shapes were made throughout the Japanese archipelago. This deep vessel is from the mid-Jōmon era. Its style marks its origin as somewhere in the area from present-day Nagano prefecture to Niigata prefecture. The rim is elaborately raised, and the entire surface is covered in twisting coils. Though highly decorative, this vessel was not a work of art but retained practical utility for food storage or cooking. It shows that Jōmon people, who were hunter-gatherers, did not live meager and impoverished lives but had abundant time and a cultivated sensibility. The recovery from prehistoric sites of fragments of decorative Jōmon pottery like this accounts in part for the prevalence of archaeologists in Japan today.