Ancient Face Image Discovered in Northern Japan

KIKONAI, JAPAN—The Asahi Shimbun reports that a piece of stone painted with a human face some 4,300 years ago has been found at the former location of a pit house at a Jomon Pottery Culture site on the southern edge of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost major island. The stone, which had been flattened and shaped into a triangle, measures about four inches per side. Yasushi Kosugi of Hokkaido University explained that the face image consists of lines forming a nose and eyebrows, oval eyes, and an open, oval mouth. “The find is extremely precious in that it could help ascertain what the spiritual culture in the mid-Jomon period was like,” he said. For more, go to “Japan’s Early Anglers.”