First Jōmon Pottery Emerges in Japan

The Jōmon period in Japan produced some of the world's earliest known pottery. Excavations at Odai Yamamoto I in Aomori Prefecture revealed pottery fragments dating to approximately 14,500 BCE, placing them among the earliest ceramic vessels discovered, though older examples exist at sites such as Yuchanyan Cave in China. These early pots were primarily utilitarian and undecorated, while later Jōmon pottery developed the distinctive rope-patterned designs that gave the period its name.