Doban

Doban (土版), sometimes translated as "clay tablets", are a type of archaeological artefact known from Jōmon Japan. They have complex decorations and may have had ritual significance. They are the ceramic counterparts to the stone ganban.

Name

Scholarship on doban began with Edward Sylvester Morse's discovery of five "curious clay objects" at the Ōmori Shell Mounds in Tokyo; these he styled "Tablets", "for want of a better name".^: 62^: 11 Morse's clay "tablets" were subsequently translated into Japanese as doban (土版), the stone ganban (岩版) being named by analogy in 1896.^: 62 Doban have since been translated back into English in a number of ways, including "clay tablets", "clay boards", "clay plaques", and "earthen plates".

Overview

Found in Middle to Final Jōmon contexts, in particular the latter, doban take the form of a rectangular or oval clay tablet and are the ceramic counterpart to the stone ganban. They are known mainly from the Tōhoku and Kantō regions, with those of the former thought to have influenced those of the latter. In Tōhoku, ganban appear to have developed first. A study at the turn of the millennium was able to draw on some 266 clay and stone tablets from 70 sites across Aomori, Iwate, and Akita Prefectures.^: 65

Since the decoration on doban and ganban includes not only S- and 山-shaped patterns and the like and cord-impressions, but also in many cases representations of the face and body, it is possible their evolution was influenced by that of dogū, whether or not they served similar purposes.^: 62–3 Like other clay and stone artefacts of a less obviously utilitarian nature, including dogū and sekibō, doban likely had a ritual function, although examples with holes through which a string could be threaded may have been worn as charms. The more three-dimensional ceramic representations of body parts sometimes referred to as doban, sometimes as dogū, may relate to fertility and childbirth or ill-health.