Dogu

Dogu ceramics – "earth figure" – are among the more interesting creations of the Jomon culture of Japan. The Jomon were hunter-gatherers who reached the islands around 11,000 BC. Rather remarkably, they started making pottery not long afterwards, certainly by 10,000 BC. "Jomon" actually means "cord-marked", describing the most common surface treatment for their pots.

The date for the earliest Dogu figures is disputed; I have seen dates ranging from 10,000 BC to 5,000 BC. Everyone agrees, though, that they became much more common and elaborate after 3,000 BC and thereafter went through several stylistic changes before the Jomon culture faded in the face of a massive migration of rice farmers from the continent around 600 to 400 BC. 

Most of these objects are small, on the order of 10 cm, but a few are as large as 40 cm tall (15 inches). There are fragments of what seem to be even larger figures, perhaps as much as a meter tall. Above is one of the most famous, now in the National Museum in Tokyo.

Most were found deliberately broken into pieces. 

Nobody knows what these were for. They are not generally found in tombs, but on the other hand they are found in large quantities around certain sites that seem to be shrines. One of the common ideas is that they were used in some kind of rite, at the end of which they were broken; perhaps they were sent as messengers to the gods or spirits, or perhaps they carried away bad luck.

These objects were rediscovered in the 1600s, beginning with a famous site known as Kamegaoka, or the Hill of Jars. Japanese archaeologists have been digging them up ever since. 

Most are humanoid, but there are exceptions like this boar and monkey.

Very cool. Incidentally one of the other interesting things about the non-agricultural Jomon is that they built large stone circles and earthworks, so that makes them another people who were doing "civilized" things before they took up farming.