These are just a small sampling of the prehistoric art of the Jomon people made between 12,000 to 2,000 years ago.

Over a span of 10,000 years, the forms and expressions are varied and diverse.

See if you can sport the "Venus" figurines that celebrate the female form, probably symbols of fertility and regeneration or perhaps healing. Or can you find the strange "goggled-eye" figurines; three are slant-eyed or cat-faced figurines? There is even one ET-or alien being-like figurine.   

There are figurines with elaborate head dresses and there are figurines with large heart-shaped masks, probably an image of shamannesses of the time. There are human and life-like figurines with hands clasped as if praying or angled as if in greeting. Some forms are long and elegant, others are short and squat. Some figurines are elaborately lined and patterned and others are abstract and whimsically simple...like the one that looks like a gingerbread man.