Photo/Illutration The Sannai Maruyama site in Aomori Prefecture (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

“The Stone Age should more accurately be called the Wood Age,” historian Yuval Noah Harari writes in his “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.”

Come to think about it, wood tends to decay and decompose, and wooden artifacts rarely remain for posterity, unlike stone tools or earthenware.

But we can imagine that people had many items made of wood around them in ancient times.

Fortunately, many wooden artifacts have been excavated from the Sannai Maruyama site in Aomori Prefecture, which dates to the Jomon Pottery Culture Period (c. 14,500 B.C.-1,000 B.C.).

The artifacts were apparently shielded from air because of the high moisture present in a garbage disposal site in the valley, experts said.

A wooden vessel that looks like a large dish was brightly lacquered red, according to a book by Yasuhiro Okada, who was long involved in excavation work at the site.

Another elaborately made wooden vessel was only 5 millimeters thick.

The book notes these finds show the Jomon culture was a culture of wood.

Archaeological sites in Hokkaido and the northern Tohoku region from the Jomon Period, including the Sannai Maruyama site, are set to be added to UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list.

The Jomon culture, in which hunter-gatherers lived in settlements even before farming began, a global rarity, is expected to draw fresh attention.

“Homo faber” (Latin for “Man the Maker”) is one concept used to define human beings.

Jomon people apparently had a strong appetite for making things.

Artifacts found at Jomon Period sites range from sewing needles in various lengths to cloth woven from plants and even hairpins used as accessories.

It would do a gross injustice to those who manufactured them if we call them primitive people.

Today, we are surrounded by machines that would look like magic to our distant ancestors.

But we may not deserve to be called homo faber if we do not make anything on our own and only use what others made.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 30

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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