Doban
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Doban (土版), sometimes translated as "clay tablets",[2] are a type of archaeological artefact known from Jōmon Japan. They have complex decorations and may have had ritual significance.[3] They are the ceramic counterparts to the stone ganban.[4]
Name
[edit]Scholarship on doban began with Edward Sylvester Morse's discovery of five "curious clay objects" at the Ōmori Shell Mounds in Tokyo; these he styled "Tablets", "for want of a better name".[4]: 62 [5]: 11 Morse's clay "tablets" were subsequently translated into Japanese as doban (土版), the stone ganban (岩版) being named by analogy in 1896.[4]: 62 Doban have since been translated back into English in a number of ways, including "clay tablets",[2] "clay boards",[1] "clay plaques",[6] and "earthen plates".[1]
Overview
[edit]Found in Middle to Final Jōmon contexts, in particular the latter,[1] doban take the form of a rectangular or oval clay tablet and are the ceramic counterpart to the stone ganban.[3] They are known mainly from the Tōhoku and Kantō regions, with those of the former thought to have influenced those of the latter.[3] In Tōhoku, ganban appear to have developed first.[1] A study at the turn of the millennium was able to draw on some 266 clay and stone tablets from 70 sites across Aomori, Iwate, and Akita Prefectures.[4]: 65
Since the decoration on doban and ganban includes not only S- and 山-shaped patterns and the like and cord-impressions, but also in many cases representations of the face and body, it is possible their evolution was influenced by that of dogū, whether or not they served similar purposes.[4]: 62–3 Like other clay and stone artefacts of a less obviously utilitarian nature, including dogū and sekibō, doban likely had a ritual function,[3] although examples with holes through which a string could be threaded may have been worn as charms.[1] The more three-dimensional ceramic representations of body parts sometimes referred to as doban,[1] sometimes as dogū,[7] may relate to fertility and childbirth or ill-health.[7]
Important Cultural Properties
[edit]Two doban have been designated Important Cultural Properties and a third is part of an Important Cultural Property (ICP) assemblage:
- Doban from Fukuda Shell Mound, Ibaraki Prefecture (Tokyo National Museum)[1]
- Doban from Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture (private collection)[8]
- Doban from Umataka Site, Niigata Prefecture (Umataka Jōmon Museum)[9]
Gallery
[edit]-
![Kamegaoka culture [ja] doban (c. 3000–2300 BP) from Araya Site, Aomori Prefecture (Kyushu National Museum)[10]](/media/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/%E5%9C%9F%E7%89%88.jpg/120px-%E5%9C%9F%E7%89%88.jpg)
Kamegaoka culture doban (c. 3000–2300 BP) from Araya Site, Aomori Prefecture (Kyushu National Museum)[10] -
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Doban from the Ōyu Stone Circles, Akita Prefecture -
![Female body parts from Sasayama Site [ja], Niigata Prefecture[7]](/media/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/%E7%AC%B9%E5%B1%B1%E9%81%BA%E8%B7%A1%E5%87%BA%E5%9C%9F_%E5%9C%9F%E8%A3%BD%E5%93%81_%E4%B8%89%E8%A7%92%E5%BD%A2%E5%9C%9F%E7%89%88.JPG/120px-%E7%AC%B9%E5%B1%B1%E9%81%BA%E8%B7%A1%E5%87%BA%E5%9C%9F_%E5%9C%9F%E8%A3%BD%E5%93%81_%E4%B8%89%E8%A7%92%E5%BD%A2%E5%9C%9F%E7%89%88.JPG)
![Kamegaoka culture [ja] doban (c. 3000–2300 BP) from Araya Site, Aomori Prefecture (Kyushu National Museum)[10]](/wiki/File:%E5%9C%9F%E7%89%88.jpg?lang=en)
![Female body parts from Sasayama Site [ja], Niigata Prefecture[7]](/wiki/File:%E7%AC%B9%E5%B1%B1%E9%81%BA%E8%B7%A1%E5%87%BA%E5%9C%9F_%E5%9C%9F%E8%A3%BD%E5%93%81_%E4%B8%89%E8%A7%92%E5%BD%A2%E5%9C%9F%E7%89%88.JPG?lang=en)
See also
[edit]
- List of National Treasures of Japan (archaeological materials)
- Jōmon period sites
- Clay tablet
- Jōmon people
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h 土版 [Earthen plate] (in Japanese and English). National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ a b "Doban, Clay tablet". National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ a b c d 土版 [Doban] (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ a b c d e Saitō, Kazuko (2000). 岩版•土版の身体表現について [The study of the representation of the human body in tablets and parallels with clay figurines]. Anthropological Science (in Japanese). 108 (2): 61–79. doi:10.1537/asj1998.108.61. ISSN 1344-3992.
- ^ Morse, Edward S. (1879). Shell Mounds of Omori. Memoirs of the Science Department, University of Tokio, Japan. Tokyo: University of Tokio.
- ^ "Nagatake". Japanese Archaeological Association. 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
- ^ a b c 縄文人の生と死と [Jōmon people in life and death] (in Japanese). Tōkamachi City Museum. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ 土版 [Doban] (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ 新潟県馬高遺跡出土品 [Exavated Artefacts from Umataka Site, Niigata Prefecture] (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ 土版 [Doban] (in Japanese). National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 27 February 2025.