They were thousands of miles apart and the two groups of builders could not meet or exchange notes, but the intriguing parallels between Stonehenge and Japanese stone circles must be highlighted in an exhibition at the Salisbury Plain Monument.
The exhibition will show that ancient people in southern Britain and Japan made great efforts to build stone circles, seemed to celebrate the passing of the sun, and felt excited to gather for festivals or rituals.
Stone Circles: Stonehenge and prehistoric Japan will highlight the similarities between the monuments and settlements of the Middle and Late Jomon in Japan and those built by the Late Neolithic in southern Britain – and point out some of the differences.
The exhibition will include 80 stunning sites, some of which have never been seen outside of Japan. The main loans announced on Wednesday include a pot of flame, a highly decorated type of Jomon pottery, its fantastic shape, causing flaming flames. Such pots have been made in Japan for a relatively short period of time, perhaps only a few hundred years.
Flame of Jomon from Ivanohara, Niigata. Photo: Tadahiro Ogawa
Also on display will be fragments of Great Danes, clay figurines found in Jomon villages and stone circles, which may have represented earth goddesses or spirits and were used in fertility or healing rituals. Many mastiffs are believed to have been deliberately broken and scattered during ceremonies.
Among the Japanese sites that will be in focus is that of the кръyu stone circles in northern Japan. It does not include the type of huge standing stones that Stonehenge is famous for, but rather two large circles made of thousands of river pebbles.
The circles include small standing stones “sundials” that align with the sun in the middle of summer. In Stonehenge, on the longest day of the year, the first rays of sunshine shine in the heart of the monument.
Dr Susan Green, a senior English heritage property historian and curator of Circles of Stone, said the Wiltshire and Japan circles offered a “shared response” to their creators’ environment and seasonal cycles.
“To understand the significance of Stonehenge, we need to understand what is happening elsewhere in the world in prehistory,” she said. “Although there was obviously no contact between Japan and Britain at the time, there are surprising parallels.
Green said the Jomon people and their Neolithic brethren in southern Britain share the same climate, topography and access to natural resources. They both built stone circles aligned with the movements of the sun, and took great care to remember their ancestors. Both nations produce similar tools and pots and create settlements around important monuments.
“But there are some really interesting differences,” Greenie said. She argues that it is not fair to say that because the Japanese produced more sophisticated pottery, they were more advanced – it may be, for example, that in Neolithic Britain it was taboo to make objects representing the human figure. . Or that the ancient British had the upper hand because they were farmers, while those who built stone circles in Japan were fishermen, hunters and gatherers. “They’re just different,” she said.
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Simon Kanner, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in Sainsbury, said he was excited to see valuable Japanese objects on display at Stonehenge. “This is an unprecedented opportunity to study comparisons between Japan’s Jomon and Neolithic Britain – divided by about 10,000 km at both ends of Eurasia but sharing a desire to build monuments,” he said.
Kanner said it was fascinating that no Great Dane-like figures had been found in southern Britain, with the closest comparable ones found in Southeast Europe.
“It may be that the ceramic figures have captured the imagination of the people of Japan, but not here,” he said. “Holding the exhibition in Stonehenge itself offers visitors the opportunity to reflect on common themes about what it means to be human, as well as the difference, diversity and creativity in prehistory.
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Stone Circles: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan runs from September 30, 2022 to August 31, 2023. Admission will be free for ticket holders for Stonehenge, members of the English Heritage and the National Trust, locals and educational groups.
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