The jade trade in ancient Japan : an archaeological investigation of the jade exchange network in Aomori during the Jomon period (14,000-500 BC)

Abstract

This thesis focuses on Jomon era Japan and examines how an extensive jade exchange network developed in the remote Aomori region of northern Tohoku. After presenting definitions of Japan, Jomon, and jade, it offers a brief historical survey of the jade bead culture in Jomon Japan. Centred around four unresolved 'puzzles', the main body of the thesis explores the distribution, production, and function of jade beads in Aomori, with a special emphasis on their role as an expression of social inequality. This thesis concludes that Jomon Japan does not fit the standard model of an 'egalitarian' hunter-gatherer society, because elements of social hierarchy had emerged in the Aomori region during the Final Jomon period. Jade beads were one of the most significant markers of this inequality. Drawing on an extensive range of primary archaeological data in Japanese, as well as relevant English and Japanese secondary sources, this thesis presents a unique insight into the jade trade of ancient Japan. Show more