| Abstract: |
Since the excavation of Idojiri and related sites in Nagano Prefecture in the years following 1960, much attention has been directed towards an unusual group of vessels whose distinctive features invariably embody collar ridges and perforations along their rims. Other features may include smooth surfaces covered with red paint, an occasional design painted in red or an anthropomorphic figure in relief, barrel-like shapes, or bodies built up in convex sections. The entire group is generally devoid of the customary cord-marking that characterizes most Jomon pottery. These pots are so distinctive, their traits so basically alien to our common concepts of Jomon pottery-that is to say, traits without recognizable antecedents-that they prompt investigations into their origins and use, as well as into the causes for their ultimate disappearance. These painted, barrel-shaped vessels belong primarily to the earlier half of the Middle Jomon period. If we accept the handful of Middle Jomon radiocarbon dates, we are dealing with material ranging from 3000 to 2500 B.C.
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