Japan (Hokkaido, Muroran)

Final Jōmon Dogū from the Wanishi Site in Hokkaido

2933

Date: Created circa 700 BC, during the final phase of the Jōmon period. Period: Final Jōmon Period (approximately 1000–400 BC).

Ritual and Spiritual Role: Served as a ritual talisman, amulet, or sympathetic magic object utilized in fertility rites, healing ceremonies, and community protection. Shamanic Function: Often associated with sympathetic magic, where specific ritual treatments or deliberate fracturing of clay figurines were believed to absorb illnesses, repel evil spirits, or invoke ancestral blessings for agricultural and hunting abundance.