Nets hidden in pottery:Resurrected fishing nets in the Jomon period, Japan

Abstract

The Japanese archipelago, surrounded by the sea and rich in marine resources, has a long fishing history, dating back to the Jomon period (c. 14,000-900 BCE). Evidence of this includes discovering fish bones and fishing gear from around 2700 shell mounds. While research on the Jomon fishing nets has focused on various aspects, such as net mesh size and marine life caught, there has been limited attention to the actual structure of the nets. Previous studies have primarily examined net imprints preserved on pottery surfaces known as ‘textile-impressed pottery’, discovered from the end of Jomon to the beginning of Yayoi at sites in the Kyushu region. These nets had been identified as fishing nets without any qualify. In this study, X-ray computed tomography (CT) was used to investigate and digitally reconstruct net impressions found in pottery from the Hidaka region of Hokkaido, Japan, dating to the Early Jomon period (referred to as ‘Shizunai-Nakano style pottery’). Subsequently, these impressions were compared to net imprints preserved on textile-impressed pottery found in the Kyushu region. The results revealed that fishing nets were (re)used in various ways in pottery production in both traditions. However, differences in thread twist direction and knotting methods likely stem from cultural variations, in contrast to differences in mesh size which resulted from the specific nets chosen for pottery making. Among them, the nets with a small mesh size of less than 6.5 mm on textile-impressed pottery were not for fishing but possibly containers or other uses. This study is the first to reconstruct Jomon period nets based on impressions in/on pottery, shedding light on not only the importance of net production in Prehistoric Japan but also biases in the sources of the pottery-making process that should be considered when archaeologists are analysing archaeological materials.