A nearly complete pottery vessel estimated to be over 10,000 years old has been recovered from the bottom of Lake Biwako, Japan, marking the oldest artifact found at the site to date, the Shiga prefectural government announced today.
The vessel, discovered near the Tsuzuraozaki underwater ruins, was pulled from a depth of 64 meters (210 feet). Measuring approximately 25 centimeters (10 inches) tall with a pointed base, the object contains engraved patterns that led experts to identify it as either Jinguji-style or Konami Upper-layer style, both associated with early Jomon-period pottery.
Researchers believe the artifact dates between 11,000 and 10,500 years ago, placing it in the earliest phase of the Jomon Pottery Culture Period, which spanned from 14,500 BC to 1,000 BC. The vessel’s preservation at such a depth, in a lake in Japan, makes it a rare and significant archaeological find.
Advanced technology used to map the lakebed
The survey, conducted in October, was commissioned by the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties and carried out in partnership with the prefectural government and related institutions.
The team used advanced underwater scanning technology, originally developed for submarine cable inspection, to map the lakebed and detect artifacts in waters deeper than 30 meters (98 feet).
A 10,000-year-old pottery vessel has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Biwako in Japan — the oldest artifact ever found at the site. Unearthed using advanced underwater scanning tech, this rare find sheds light on early Jomon culture. 🏺🌊 #Archaeology #Japan #History pic.twitter.com/nhY4NlOMvk
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) November 25, 2025
The scanner, fitted with four cameras, captured high-resolution imagery and terrain data over an area about 200 meters (656 feet) wide and 40 meters (131 feet) long, located 30 to 50 meters (98 to 164 feet) south of the ruins.
Yoshifumi Ikeda, a professor of underwater archaeology at Kokugakuin University, noted that the scanning system produced data equal in quality to that gathered by human divers, even at depths challenging for manual exploration.
He added that this technique could advance underwater research significantly, especially in calm inland waters like lakes.
Other discoveries near the pottery vessel in the lake in Japan
Footage from the site also revealed six red-brown Haji pottery jars dating back around 1,500 years to the middle of the Kofun Period, between the third and seventh centuries.
These jars, found in a 144-square-meter (1,550-square-foot) area near the newly discovered vessel, are thought to be more than 8,000 years old.
The Tsuzuraozaki site was first identified in 1924 after fishermen retrieved Jomon pottery in their nets. Since then, about 200 pottery fragments, ranging from the Jomon to Heian periods, have been recovered, but the full scale of the ruins remains unknown due to the lake’s depth.
Kenichi Yano, an archaeology professor at Ritsumeikan University, said the discovery is unique to underwater archaeology, as it is extremely rare for pottery this old to remain intact on land.
He explained that the site lies in a deep, valley-like section of the lakebed that has not filled with sediment, allowing artifacts to stay exposed over long periods due to ongoing crustal movement.
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