Goshono Jomon Site
Goshono iseki · Goshono Site Ichinohe
Late Jomon 2500–1200 BCE·Jomon Late·🇯🇵 Iwate Prefecture, Ninohe District, Ichinohe Town, Goshono plateau on Mabechi River terrace, Japan
About
About Goshono Jomon Site
Late Jomon pit-dwelling settlement (2500–1200 BCE) on Mabechi River plateau, UNESCO 2021 component 1632-010, with 20 pit-houses, 800+ pit graves, burnt mound middens and 4 m earthwork stone pavements demonstrating Jomon sedentary complexity without agriculture 4000 years. Famous for charred lacquered wooden pillar and 40 cm clay dogu fragment — Jomon spiritual landscape linking Hokkaido-Tohoku set.
Why it mattersDemonstrates Jomon long-term sedentism without agriculture — challenges agricultural-determinism; lacquer pillar earliest Asian lacquer structure.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why 800 pit graves in one settlement — communal long use vs mass death?
Theories
- 01Jomon sedentism via nuts-fish storage model
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.2500–1200 BCE Late–Final Jomon
- Period
- Late Jomon 2500–1200 BCE
- Culture
- Jomon Late
- Builders
- Jomon hunter-fisher-gatherers
- Purpose
- Sedentary pottery-using forager village and ritual precinct
- Abandoned
- c.1200 BCE Final Jomon depopulation
- Rediscovered
- 1940s survey; excavated 1970s Iwate Prefectural
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.2500 BCE
Middle-Late Jomon pit-houses and cemetery founded
2021
Inscribed as Jomon Prehistoric Sites WHC 1632
On the ground
Structures & features
40.3310° N · 141.3040° E · 200 m · 1 mapped feature
Pit-dwelling cluster
housesReconstructed pit houses with hearths
40.3312° N · 141.3042° E
Gallery