Ceramics developed independently all over the world. The Japanese Jomon were perhaps the very first people to create storage and cooking jars, their techniques and style has little change for 8,000 years. The oldest pots are from the Jomon culture; the oldest one is dated to about 10,700 BCE. There is some debate over the first ceramic pot; there are some vague references to pieces found in Siberia that closely matches the age to those of the incipient Jomon. Even if this was the case, it is highly unlikely the Jomon culture traded outside of Japan at this time. The people of Japan were isolated, and later on their contact was limited to mainly Korea and parts of China. Korean and Kyushu techniques, shapes and design slowly converged in the late and final phase of Jomon ceramics, and another unique Japanese style doesn't arise again until the medieval period. There is little debate between scholars about the structure and functions of Jomon pottery, so I plan to present an introduction to the utilitarian ceramic crafts of the Jomon people from three sources, Douglas Moore Kenrick, Namio Egami, Junko Habu and Mark E. Hall. The three texts by these authors offer more insights to certain areas than the former, thus providing a detailed look into the general views of Jomon ceramics.
             In Japanese, the word "Jomon" means "cord-marking", referring to the common decoration method used these ancient pots. The Jomon culture was a hunter-gatherer culture, until around 2,500 BCE, where we see evidence of rice-cultivation. The invention of pottery was an important landmark for primitive people. It improved methods of cooking, for the first time people could boil foods, which are more digestible than raw or roasted foods. It widen the range of new flavors, and increased the foods that were now made edible such as bamboo shoots and certain yams are toxic unless they are boiled. Sterilization was now possible, which redu...