The first known example of a painted stone depicting a human face was discovered by Japanese archaeologists. The artifact is dated by the Pottery of Jomon (8000 BC) and was buried underground.
Jomon's pottery culture was rich in tools and ornaments made of bone, stone, shell and horn; ceramic figurines and vessels; and varnishing. This culture has existed for a very long period of time from 10,500 BC. before 300 BC and was mainly associated with pottery, decorated with drawings or reliefs.
The stone found was flattened and formed into a triangle, about four inches on each side. Yasushi Kosugi from Hokkaido University explained that the facial image is composed of lines forming a nose and eyebrows, oval eyes and an open oval mouth.
“The find is extremely valuable in that it can help figure out what spiritual culture was during the mid-Jomon period,” said Yasushi Kosugi, professor of culture at Jomon University at Hokkaido University.
Archaeologists say the stone fragment itself dates back to the second half of the mid-Jomon period (4,300 years ago), and the site of its discovery is part of Koren's five archaeological sites in Kikonai, in Oshima Prefecture, southwest of Hokkaido.
12-13 cm wide and 1.4 cm thick, the stone is shaped like an inverted triangle.
While the horizontal line is drawn near the top side with black pigment, an ellipse is also drawn on it, which appears to represent the eye and the lines that form the eyebrows and nose.
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It is not yet known how the object was used and for what purposes. It may have been used for religious services or other purposes in ancient times.
Archaeologists have previously unearthed a drawing of a human body dating from the same period, however, a facial image has never been found anywhere else in Japan.