A prehistoric pot from Japan inspires a fingerprinting technique used by modern detectives. A whole city is built from waste in Neolithic Turkey. The Maya celebrate the new year by throwing out everything associated with the old one. And in London’s King’s Cross, an army of scavengers ekes out a precarious living on a mountain of dust… A Noiser production, written by Roger Morris. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started with a 7-day free trial. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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It's approximately 3,000 years BC and we're in the land known today as Japan.
In the far distant future, this spot will lie within the vast urban sprawl that surrounds Tokyo.
For now, there's just a small settlement arranged around a central space.
Each house has a conical thatched roof made from Japanese silver grass.
The roof comes right down to the ground, making it seem as if the house is growing out of the earth like a giant mushroom.
Future archaeologists will call these dwellings pit houses.
As you can hear from the crashing surf, we're on the coast, looking out over a glistening bay.
A woman sits cross legged in front of one of the houses.
She's wearing clothing made from strips of mulberry bark, pounded until they are supple enough to be woven into fabric.
It's the typical clothing of the Neolithic people who inhabit Japan at this period.
In front of her, there's a flat stone which she's using as a work surface for an outdoor pottery studio.
She rolls out a long, fine snake of clay, about 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter.
She coils the clay around a circular base, patiently building it until she has a tall cylindrical vessel.
She smooths the surface with a bamboo tool before carefully wrapping a length of rope around the wet clay.
As she's doing this, the woman places her thumbs inside the cylinder to press the rope firmly in place.
When she takes the rope away, it leaves an impression of its fibers on the pot.
It's this distinctive effect that gives her civilization its modern name.
Jomon.