#tsuboyapottery the speakers are Hiroki Miyagi (coordinator), Shinji Yamasaki (problems concerning the origins of pottery in the ryukyu archipelago), Nagahiro Ohama (pottery in the yaeyama islands), Ryo Gushiken (pottery in shitabaru cave and unbuki underwater cave (Amami)) and Koji Matayoshi (panelist)

#tsuboyapottery the conference starts with a presentation of the tsuboya museum exhibition 「islands' pottery, origins and future」for the museum's 25th anniversary.
the 「origins」are the origins of ceramic ＝ pottery, the 「future」is about research and communication to the public.
the exhibition includes pottery from all the ryukyu archipelago, including some of the oldest ones found and imported prehistoric pottery as well.
a few japanese pieces (not imported, found in japan) are also presented.

#tsuboyapottery
there are also modern reproductions and modern pieces inspired by prehistoric shapes.
the symposium will present the potteries of each area of the ryukyu and what can be learnt by their study.
the second part of the symposium will be a discussion by the invited researchers.
the first talk is by Ryo Gushiken of Amagi (Tokunoshima) about the pottery found in Shitabaru Cave and Unbuki underwater Cave.

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nanto-tsumegatamon pottery has been found in Tokunoshima, on the west coast in 4 sites.
the west coast is essentially limestone cliffs, with many caves. shitabaru is a large cave in which 4 trenches have been surveyed. it has a complex stratigraphy with contexts between 3800 and 30000 years BP. the most recent pottery found is Omonawa-zentei (4000 bp), there is also nanto-tsumegatamon (7000 bp) and pottery with patterns of consecutive punctuation from below the nanto-tsumegata.

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there are also two other types from contexts below, the oldest one with wave patterns, that have jars and bowls (9000 ybp).
there is an even older pottery below (13000-14000 y bp) with thin upraised lines patterns.
until recently the nanto-tsumegatamon was the oldest pottery found, the pottery time lapse has just doubled in a few years.
they have a hearth dated 14000 ybp ＊above＊ the oldest pottery so it may even be older.

#tsuboyapottery in Unbuki, the pottery has been found deep in the cave, dated 14000 to 7400 bp (that's not very precise this time…)
this concludes gushiken's talk.
next speaker is Shinji Yamasaki on the origins of pottery in the #Okinawa Islands.
nanto-tsumegatamon was long thought to be the oldest (7000 bp) but older potteries are now found in many sites all over okinawa.
when nanto-tsumegatamon was found and proved to be that old it was a revolution in okinawa chronology.

#tsuboyapottery
the nanto-tsumegatamon is not related to the older tsumegatamon of japan (it quite crosses the japanese researchers who have spent years trying to prove they are related despite the 7000 years of difference).
in Yabuchi cave, pottery have been found in a 10000 years old shellmound. it is dated 10000 to 9000 bp, called 「red paste with incised lines」. the lines are incised with shells, the shells used change with time when the reefs are created around the island.

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the paste include volcanic ashes, that are not easily found in okinawa so that people had to really want to include some and look for it. possibly due to influence of kyushu. some of the wall construction though looks like taiwan techniques, with slabs rather than coils (there are also coils, the 2 techniques are found equally in the oldest types of pottery)
this concludes the second talk.

#tsuboyapottery the third speaker is Nagahiro Ohama about the Yaeyama.
the Yaeyama have a period without pottery in the middle of their prehistoric sequence.
the first population dates of 24000 ybp but the first pottery is in the Shimotabaru Period by 4000 bp. Shimotabaru pottery is very different from the pottery of the same period in okinawa and is probably not related. it is very thick, with coarse tempering

#tsuboyapottery (i often say it was made by people from taiwan drifted ashore, who knew about pottery but never had made any before)
some pottery found in shiraho-saonetabaru seem to be related to the Shimotabaru pottery. it is dated 9500-8500 bp but the sherds are really few and the gap with the Shimotabaru pottery (4000bp) is too long to be sure there is a relation.
after Shimotabaru, there is a period without pottery starting 2800 bp in miyako / 2000 bp in yaeyama, until the 12th century ad.

#tsuboyapottery in the 12th century, there is the Shinzatomura pottery that lasts to the 13th c. it's large cooking pots. Birosuku pottery is also dated 12-13th c. and is also large cooking pots. Nakamori pottery lasts from the 13th to the 17th c and is large cooking pots too with vertical or horizontal handles. Nakamori also have jars, of different shapes, with or without handles.
the panari-yaki pottery 17-19th c. has mainly jars, globular, with potters' marks on them.

#tsuboyapottery there are also bowls and cooking pots, and imitation of okinawan funerary jars (zushi).
this concludes the third talk.

#tsuboyapottery we'll now enter the discussion.
we'll start with those new types that are older than the nanto-tsumegatamon.
amami and okinawa have quite similar discoveries, but there are slight differences.
and since we are late, everybody is talking very fast with no consideration for the people who try to live-toot…
some of the pottery types older than the nanto-tsumegatamon have a very nice finishing, nicer than some of the more recent types.