Uncontacted contemporaries · 422 overlapping years

Hittite Empire Jomon Culture

For 422 years — from 1,600 BCE to 1,178 BCE — both civilizations existed simultaneously. Neither this dataset nor the historical record shows any documented trade, war, or diplomatic contact between them.

14,000 BCE 300 BCE

Hittite Empire

1,600 BCE–1,178 BCE

Jomon Culture

14,000 BCE–300 BCE

↑ Overlap begins, 1,600 BCE

Hittite Empire

Anatolia

An Anatolian empire that fought Egypt to a standstill at Kadesh and pioneered early iron production.

Jomon Culture

Japanese archipelago

A remarkably long-lived hunter-gatherer culture in Japan, notable for producing some of the world's earliest pottery long before agriculture took hold.

Traits both developed independently

With no documented contact, any shared trait below represents independent development rather than transmission from one to the other.

Long-distance trade

Hittite Empire only

Monumental architecture
Bronze metallurgy
Iron metallurgy
Standing army
Codified law
Urban planning

Jomon Culture only

Seafaring