Uncontacted contemporaries · 500 overlapping years

Mycenaean Greece Jomon Culture

For 500 years — from 1,600 BCE to 1,100 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

Mycenaean Greece

1,600 BCE–1,100 BCE

Jomon Culture

14,000 BCE–300 BCE

↑ Overlap begins, 1,600 BCE

Mycenaean Greece

Greek mainland and Aegean

Warrior-aristocracy palace states whose Linear B tablets are the earliest deciphered form of Greek.

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 Seafaring

Mycenaean Greece only

Monumental architecture
Bronze metallurgy
Standing army
Urban planning

Jomon Culture only

No traits unique to Jomon Culture in this comparison.