Sannai Maruyama Site

Aomori, Japan

Sannai Maruyama is a riverine neolithic settlement that is located just above the left bank of the Okidate River. Occupied during the Early and Middle Jomon (4th and 3d millennium BC), the site covers an area of 59 acres. It encompasses hundreds of pit buildings, thousands of burials, and innumerable shards and fragments of pottery and dogu. The Longhouse is in the center of this photo; to the left is the 6-Pillared Building. Behind the Longhouse is a line of three large pillared buildings.

Aomori is located at the northern tip of Honshu and just south across the strait from Hokkaido, the ancestral home of the Jomon people.