| architecture |
| calligraphy |
| ceramics |
| clothing |
| comics |
| gardens |
| lacquerwork |
| literature |
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| painting |
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| tea ceremony |
| television |
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| thematic routes |
| timeline |
| the site |
context: ceramics > prehistory
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a Middle Jomon urn, showing the extravagant decor of the period |
Middle Jomon
Strange things happen in this period, covering 5000-2500BC. Rims start to rise and twist into strange configurations, sometimes figurative. Obviously this makes the objects much harder to use, so books say it was for ritual purposes - but that's anthropologists' and archaeologists' way of shrugging and saying "we haven't a clue", so don't take it as proven.