Sasaki, a scholar of the cultural anthropology, classified the incipient period of the periodization based on the Jomon earthenware sequence as the first Jomon period which was the transitional period between the Paleolithic period and the Neolithic period, the earlier period as the second Jomon period which was the period when the Jomon culture progressed toward maturity, and from the early period to the last period as the third Jomon period which was the period when the matured Jomon culture was maintained.
文化人類学者の佐々木は縄文土器編年区分のうち草創期を旧石器時代から新石器時代への移行期として縄文Ⅰ期、土器編年の縄文早期を縄文文化が完成に向かう時期として縄文Ⅱ期、土器編年の縄文前期から晩期までを完成した縄文文化が保持された時期として縄文Ⅲ期に分類した。