Uncontacted contemporaries · 505 overlapping years

Old Kingdom Egypt Jomon Culture

For 505 years — from 2,686 BCE to 2,181 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

Old Kingdom Egypt

2,686 BCE–2,181 BCE

Jomon Culture

14,000 BCE–300 BCE

↑ Overlap begins, 2,686 BCE

Old Kingdom Egypt

Nile Valley, North Africa

The era of Egypt's great pyramid building, governed by pharaohs regarded as living gods.

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

Old Kingdom Egypt only

Monumental architecture
Bronze metallurgy
Irrigation agriculture
Standing army
Astronomical record-keeping
Urban planning

Jomon Culture only

No traits unique to Jomon Culture in this comparison.