Jomon Stone Pendants

Sannai Maruyama Site Museum
Aomori, Japan

The holes, that have been drilled laboriously through these worked and polished stones, indicate that they were worn by living people as pendants or accessories that were sewn or strung onto headbands, necklaces, pectorals, etc. and then buried with their owners after death. Some of the stones (photo upper left, upper right) have a "peanut" shape that resembles, and may be a precursor of, the "comma-shaped jades" (magatama) of later royalty.