The sherds of Ōdai Yamamoto
The dawn of Jōmon: 46 sherds from Aomori
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In 1998 excavators in northern Honshu found 46 pottery fragments dated to about 14,500 BC, the oldest in Japan. They mark the start of the Jōmon culture, named after the cord-marked decoration of its later pots; similar early pottery has turned up on the lower Amur.