Year of the Seahorse? [Archaeology]

Happy New Year.
I look forward to your continued support this year!

Due to the trend of 'ending New Year's cards,' the joys of the New Year are decreasing year by year.
It's not like I receive emails or the like from those who have stopped sending them; it feels more like they've ended the relationship itself, which is quite... (tears)
So, I'm going to send New Year's cards from Sone to all of you who might be feeling the same way.
I hope it adds at least a little bit of cheer.
It doesn't have a lottery number, though! (laughs)

There is something that looks like a delicious cookie, but this is an image of a fragment of Jomon pottery.
I actually made it with clay and processed it digitally.
And the figure drawn on the fragment on the right, with Jomon patterns applied inside the lines, is the 'Seahorse Pattern'.
Since the name contains 'horse' (uma), it's perfect for this Year of the Horse! (?)

However, as 'Kai-chan' explains, this Seahorse Pattern is a minor motif that only those in the know would recognize.
If there were 100 Jomon pottery researchers... I wonder if even one would know it? (sweat)
It's not something that would even appear if you searched for it, so the average person who receives this at the beginning of the year will probably be blank-faced.
There's even a weird character on it... (laughs)

The shape of the pattern was created in the San'in region about 4,000 years ago, and it was a big hit in that area for a time.
Since it was a characteristic shape that became a trend, I thought it would be better to have a name for it, so 18 years ago, I likened it to a seahorse.
Yes, I am the one who named it.
However, since there is no strict method like the naming conventions for new biological species, it is a world where whoever speaks first wins (sweat).
And if it doesn't gain approval, it just fades away...

As I mentioned earlier, it is a name with low recognition, but it seems that local researchers in San'in accepted it as a 'local specialty'.
As a result, the Kojindani Museum in Shimane held a special exhibition titled 'Development of the Seahorse Pattern: The Izumo Brand of the Late Jomon Period'.
This is the news introducing it.

Unfortunately, the person who named it wasn't notified, so I couldn't actually see it.
Gathering fragments from news and such, it seems that real seahorses were also on display.
I wish it hadn't been displayed in a way that could be mistaken for the actual motif of the time rather than just a comparison, but I recently found a blog that fell into that trap (?) and had an AI draw a picture of pottery with seahorse patterns (≠ Seahorse Pattern) on it, claiming 'This is the Izumo brand Seahorse Pattern!', so I feel a bit uneasy... (sweat)

By the way, the seahorse itself seems to be considered a lucky charm all over the world, perhaps because of its mysterious nature.
In Japan, because it is written as 'dragon's child' (tatsu no otoshigo), it was thought to be lucky for pregnant women, and it is said that they carried dried ones as amulets.

...This kind of 'by the way' is the source of misunderstandings.
The impression of the exhibits stays in the mind more easily than the text explanation, so if you watch it blankly, you might think, 'I see, Jomon people felt some kind of spiritual power in seahorses and made them into patterns, just like we do now... Come to think of it, sea snakes are sometimes washed up on Inasa Beach in Izumo and are said to be messengers of Okuninushi-no-Mikoto, so maybe the seahorses of that time were the same...'
No, no, no, that's not it! It's just a comparison, a com-par-i-son! (laughs)

Of course, since this is about the Jomon period, where there are no written records, the possibility that they really used seahorses as a motif cannot be zero.
But even without writing, the transition of patterns is roughly understood through pottery research, and according to that, it is hard to think that there was a specific motif.
Just like the story about Jomon mushrooms I wrote about before, it's not that I have no hesitation in destroying 'ancient romance' like this, but this time my comparison might encourage the birth of 'superstition'... (sweat)

One of my goals for this year is to revise the paper on this Seahorse Pattern for the first time in 18 years.
To avoid a difficult birth like last year's paper, I'll keep a dried seahorse in my pocket... wait, that's confusing, so stop it! (laughs)

Well, I'll continue at this relaxed pace this year, so I'd be happy if you'd keep me company~♪

[End]