doban

{{Short description|Type of Japanese archaeological artefact}}

{{Italic title}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}

File:福田貝塚出土 土版 (J-38401).JPG doban (ICP) from Fukuda Shell Mound in Inashiki, Ibaraki Prefecture ({{convert|16.7 x 14.0 x 1.7|cm|disp=sqbr}}) (Tokyo National Museum){{cite web |url=https://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?content_base_id=100616&content_pict_id=0 |script-title=ja:土版 |trans-title=Earthen plate |language=ja, en |publisher=National Institutes for Cultural Heritage |access-date=1 March 2025}}]]

{{Nihongo|Doban|土版}}, sometimes translated as "clay tablets",{{cite web |url=https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/tnm/J-34838?locale=en |title=Doban, Clay tablet |publisher=National Institutes for Cultural Heritage |access-date=1 March 2025}} are a type of archaeological artefact known from Jōmon Japan. They have complex decorations and may have had ritual significance. They are the ceramic counterparts to the stone ganban.{{cite journal |script-title=ja:岩版•土版の身体表現について |trans-title=The study of the representation of the human body in tablets and parallels with clay figurines |language=ja |author-last=Saitō |author-first=Kazuko |journal=Anthropological Science |issn=1344-3992 |year=2000 |volume=108 |number=2 |pages=61–79 |doi=10.1537/asj1998.108.61}}

Name

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".{{rp|62}}{{cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082186564&seq=27 |title=Shell Mounds of Omori |author-last=Morse |author-first=Edward S. |author-link=Edward S. Morse |series=Memoirs of the Science Department, University of Tokio, Japan |publisher=University of Tokio |place=Tokyo |year=1879}}{{rp|11}} Morse's clay "tablets" were subsequently translated into Japanese as {{nihongo|doban|土版}}, the stone {{nihongo|ganban|岩版}} being named by analogy in 1896.{{rp|62}} Doban have since been translated back into English in a number of ways, including "clay tablets", "clay boards", "clay plaques",{{cite web |url=https://archaeology.jp/sites/2014/nagatake.htm |title=Nagatake |publisher=Japanese Archaeological Association |date=2014 |access-date=26 March 2025}} and "earthen plates".

Overview

Found in Middle to Final Jōmon contexts, in particular the latter, doban take the form of a rectangular or oval clay tablet and are the ceramic counterpart to the stone ganban.{{cite web |url=https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/454941 |script-title=ja:土版 |trans-title=Doban |language=ja |publisher=Agency for Cultural Affairs |access-date=1 March 2025}} They are known mainly from the Tōhoku and Kantō regions, with those of the former thought to have influenced those of the latter. In Tōhoku, ganban appear to have developed first. 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.{{rp|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.{{rp|62–3}} Like other clay and stone artefacts of a less obviously utilitarian nature, including dogū and sekibō, doban likely had a ritual function, although examples with holes through which a string could be threaded may have been worn as charms. The more three-dimensional ceramic representations of body parts sometimes referred to as doban, sometimes as dogū,{{cite web |url=http://www.tokamachi-museum.jp/information06.html |script-title=ja:縄文人の生と死と |trans-title=Jōmon people in life and death |language=ja |publisher=Tōkamachi City Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922002104/http://www.tokamachi-museum.jp/information06.html |access-date=1 March 2025|archive-date=22 September 2017 }} may relate to fertility and childbirth or ill-health.

Important Cultural Properties

Two doban have been designated Important Cultural Properties and a third is part of an Important Cultural Property (ICP) assemblage:

Gallery

土版.jpg|Kamegaoka {{ill|Kamegaoka culture|ja|亀ヶ岡文化|lt=culture}} doban ({{Circa|3000–2300 BP}}) from Araya Site, Aomori Prefecture (Kyushu National Museum){{cite web |url=https://colbase.nich.go.jp/collection_items/kyuhaku/J468 |script-title=ja:土版 |trans-title=Doban |language=ja |publisher=National Institutes for Cultural Heritage |access-date=27 February 2025}}

馬高遺跡出土 土版.JPG|Doban ({{Circa|5000 BP}}) from Umataka Site, Niigata Prefecture (Umataka Jōmon Museum)

Doban ooyu ruin.jpg|Doban from the Ōyu Stone Circles, Akita Prefecture

笹山遺跡出土 土製品 三角形土版.JPG|Female body parts from {{ill|Sasayama Site|ja|笹山遺跡}}, Niigata Prefecture

See also

References