Intrigued by the wide variety of marvelous decorative elements on Jomon pots, I made several pots based on their designs when I was working in clay. In his A History of the World in 100 Objects, Neil MacGregor chooses a Japanese Jomon clay vessel from approximately 5000 B.C.E. for one of his chapters.
Japan produced the world's first pots. A few thousand years later, the first known pots in the Middle East and North Africa were made, and pots in the Americas followed a few thousand years after that. The Jomon pots were created with coils of clay and decorated at first with fibers or cords and later with more elaborate designs. Food was first stored in baskets or in the ground, but the invention of clay pots created new possibilities. Not only did they protect food from insects and other animals, but pots also changed peoples' diets. The Jomon people could now cook seafood, meat and possibly nuts such as acorns as well. Japan may have been "the birthplace of the soup and the home of the stew." Mr. MacGregor's book was published by Penguin Books in 2010 and in 2011 by Viking Penguin in the United States.
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AuthorI am a Northwest artist making collages from mulberry papers stamped by hand from original images that I have carved. Archives
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