This guidebook for The Umataka Jomon Museum. Please download and visit while reading this guidebook.
The Umataka Jomon Museum
This museum stands on the sites of the Umataka-Sanjuinaba excavation, where pieces of Nagaoka’s famous “flame pottery” were discovered. Nicknamed the “Flame Pot Museum,” it serves as a place to display, store, and study the earthenware recovered from the sites.
Our main building serves three purposes:
1) To exhibit artifacts from the site and tell the public about them.
2) To house and preserve these Important Cultural Properties of Japan.
3) To educate schoolchildren and others about the history of this site and the items recovered from it.
The Umataka-Sanjuinaba Sites
The remains of a large-scale settlement, located on the left bank of the Shinano River during the Jomon period (15,000–900 BCE), were unearthed at Umataka-Sanjuinaba.
The Umataka remains lie in the eastern part of the site. These date from the mid-Jomon period, between 5,500 and 4,500 years ago. The Sanjuinaba remains occupy the western part of the site and date from a later period, around 4,500 to 3,200 years ago.
The Umataka remains are of a northern village and a southern village, the latter of which was established later. Flame pottery was first discovered at the northern village. At the Sanjuinaba remains, we can see how the population gradually grew into a large-scale settlement while shifting southward.
The Umataka-Sanjuinaba sites were collectively designated a National Historic Site in 1979.
Flame Pottery: An Important Cultural Property
This first example of regional flame pottery was discovered in Sekihara in 1936. The name comes from the decorations at the top of the pots, which resemble burning flames.
Later, archaeologist Nakamura Kozaburo classified this pot as “Flame, A-type, no. 1.” It thereafter became a point of reference for other “flame pots,” not only in Niigata but also at Jomon-period sites in other parts of Japan.
Distribution of Flame Pottery
A total of 150 different sites in Niigata Prefecture have yielded flame pottery discoveries thus far. Most of these are concentrated around the middle and upper reaches of the Shinano River: namely, the city of Nagaoka, city of Tokamachi, and town of Tsunan. Other sites, however, have been uncovered along other riverbanks, stretching as far out as the Sea of Japan and the Sado Island area.
Excavations in the western part of the prefecture have turned up relatively few examples of flame pottery.
Northern Village from the First Half of the Mid-Jomon Period
Most of the dwellings in the northern village were subterranean. There is also evidence of storage holes, graves, and even a communal waste disposal area.
The pit dwellings were mostly rectangular, about 8 meters long and 4 meters wide. However, there were also some of an oval or circular shape.
Rectangular dwellings were generally arranged in a radial pattern, facing lengthways toward the center of the village at a diameter of up to 100 meters.
Clay Figurines
These female figurines (dogu) were fashioned from clay and are noteworthy for their dish-shaped heads and prominent breasts and navels. Most surviving samples have only the torso intact, with the arms and legs having become separated from the body. It is rare to find a figurine that is complete.
The Umataka Jomon people are thought to have used these figurines in rituals. Among other things, they may have prayed for a rich harvest and the safe birth and good health of their future descendants.
