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| | Ceramics Today - Early Japanese Pottery |
 | | Clay figurines are known from the earliest human occupations, but clay vessels, pottery vessels used for storing, cooking and serving food, and carrying water were first manufactured at least 12-13,000 years ago, and perhaps a little earlier yet. |
 | | At the Kamino site in addition to a handful of potshards were found microblades, wedge-shaped microcores, spearheads and other artifacts similar to assemblages at Pre-ceramic sites in Japan dated between 14,000 and 16,000 years before the present (BP); furthermore this layer is stratigraphically below a securely dated Initial Jomon occupation of 12,000 BP. |
 | | Like those of the Kamino site, these shards are also quite rare, suggesting that although the technology was known to the Late Pre-ceramic cultures, it just was not terribly useful to their nomadic lifestyle. |
| www.ceramicstoday.com /articles/jomon.htm (447 words) |
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