Early Jōmon Dwellings

source: Sahara, Taikei Nihon no rekishi, 182.

This cluster of homes dates from roughly 6000 BCE, the Earliest Jōmon era. The holes in the floors were used for roof posts and for the storage of valuables. The complete site, in Takanekido, Chiba prefecture, includes over sixty dwellings. Based on such sites, archeologists have estimated the population of Japan in the Earliest Jōmon era at roughly 20,000 people.

source: Sahara, Taikei Nihon no rekishi, 183.

An artist's rendering of a pit dwelling. Such homes were common in the Jōmon and Yayoi periods but pit dwellings remained in use into the Nara period.