Japan was first colonised from Korea during a time of lower sea levels about 30,000 years ago. The people lived by hunting and gathering as shown by the stone projectile points, knives and bones that they left behind. From at least 12,000 years ago they began to fire clay to make bowls and other vessels. This is the world’s earliest evidence of pottery, and marks the start of the Jomon period.

The earliest pottery was only occasionally decorated and had rounded bases, whereas later vessels had flat bases and were often decorated with impressions of cord. The invention of pottery allowed a wider variety of plant foods to be used. Now starchy tubers and other plants could be boiled for easier digestion.

Seafood was also important, with many sites surviving as shell-middens, in which fish-hooks made of bone have been recovered. Other early sites are found in caves, and occasionally open settlements have been discovered with pit dwellings. The later phases of the Jomon period saw the introduction of farming from about 6000 years ago.