Sannai-Maruyama Jomon Site

Sannai-Maruyama is the largest and most complete Jomon-period settlement ever found in Japan, occupied for some 1,700 years from about 5,900 years ago. Excavated from the 1990s and now inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, it has been partly reconstructed: you can walk among thatched pit-dwellings, raised storehouses and the site's landmark, a massive six-pillared timber tower whose post-holes were found intact. A modern museum displays the pottery, lacquerware and clay figurines that overturned the idea of the Jomon as simple hunter-gatherers, and free English tours run through the day.