Sannai-Maruyama Archaeological Site

Sannai-Maruyama, on the edge of Aomori City, is the largest known settlement of Japan's Jomon period and one of the most important prehistoric sites in the country. People lived here continuously for some 1,700 years, roughly 5,900 to 4,200 years ago, in a large, organised village that overturned the old idea of the Jomon as simple wandering hunter-gatherers — its inhabitants built durable dwellings, managed chestnut groves, traded goods over long distances, and buried their dead in dedicated grounds. The spacious open-air site is dotted with reconstructions you can walk among: rows of pit dwellings, an enormous longhouse, and the site's signature landmark, a towering structure raised on six massive chestnut pillars whose purpose is still debated. The excellent Sanmaru Museum displays thousands of excavated artifacts — Jomon pottery, lacquerware, jade beads, and the clay dogu figurines that are some of the world's oldest. Inscribed in 2021 as part of the 'Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan,' it is free to enter and an easy, fascinating stop just minutes from Shin-Aomori Station.