The Japanese Jomon culture (c. 10,000–300 B.C.E.) was a settled hunter-gatherer society with a long-standing tradition of clay pottery. Jomon pottery from the middle and later periods are very creative, and the clay was pulled and twisted into unique forms. Animalistic pieces called dogu are likely effigies of the people who owned them, and are highly abstracted. Some have large, heart-shaped faces, long twisting arms, and even markings similar to tattoos.