Concentrated accumulation of pottery and Site formoation process in the Jomon Period

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Abstract : Among Neolithic cultures in the world, Jomon culture produced and consumed especially great amount of pottery, most of which were cooking pots. In the Late Jomon Period (about 3500 B.C.), variation of decoration and form increased and diverged into coarse and fine wares. At the same time, "pottery mounds" where great amounts of pottery were accumulated began to be formed at some particular sites in eastern Japan.In this paper, the author examined the formation process of the pottery mound based on his own excavation in order to understand the background of such archaeological phenomena. As a result, the author found that the pottery mound was formed by repeated piling of secondary deposition units which consist of used and broken pottery shards over a relatively short period. It was also found that there were two ways of placing pottery shards ; horizontal piling and vertical alignment. The formation of pottery mound suggests intensification of actions concerning the life cycle of pottery and spatial fixation in the landscape of the Late Jomon Period.