Short+History

Human beings have lived in Japan for at least 30000 years. During the last ice age Japan was connected to mainland Asia by a land bridge and Stone Age hunters were able to walk across. When the ice age ended about 10000 BC Japan became a group of islands. About 8000 BC the Japanese learned to make pottery. The period from 8000 BC is called the Jomon. The word Jomon means cord marked because those people marked their pottery by wrapping cord around it. The Jomon people lived by hunting fish, and collecting shellfish. The Jomon made tools of stone, wood and bone. They also made clay figurines of people and animals called dogu.