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SUMMARY:(AGM + Japan Series Closing Lecture) Prof Simon Kaner - Towards 150 years of Japanese archaeology and its broader Asian connections
DESCRIPTION:About the Lecture\nIn 1877 the American zoologist Edward Sylvester Morse undertook investigations at the Omori shell mounds in Tokyo\, a site today passed by millions of travellers as they make their way to and from Haneda Airport. The report Morse published in 1879\, in both English and Japanese\, was the first formal Japanese archaeological report. Ten years previously\, the Keeper of the British Museum\, Augustus Woolaston Franks\, gave a paper at the Third International Congress of Prehistory which met in Norwich and London\, on the topic of the Stone Age of Japan. These events represent what can be considered the start of Japanese archaeology. In these two presentations\, both designed as stand-alone lectures or to be heard consecutively\, I will outline some of the major achievements of Japanese archaeology\, the history of connections between Japanese and European archaeology\, and the role played by the Asiatic Societies in the dissemination of this new knowledge. The talks represent the start of a new three-year project at the Sainsbury Institute to mark the 150th anniversary of Japanese archaeology (2027-2029). Both lectures will touch on the networks of archaeologists and mention some current major research collaborations with which the speaker is involved. The talks (and the new project) will also attempt to place the history of Japanese archaeology and its European engagements in the broader context of the history of world archaeology. The talks draw on research undertaken as part of the Sainsbury Institute’s Digital Futures project funded by the Ishibashi Foundation. \nIn this lecture we focus on the role played by four Europeans in the early stages of Japanese archaeology: William Gowland (British English)\, Eduardo Chiossone (Italian)\, Neil Gordon Munro (British Scottish) and Gerard Groot (Dutch). Gowland and Chiossone were foreign specialists (oyatoi gaikokujin) employed by the Japanese Meiji government who developed an interest in the ancient past of Japan through their work. Munro\, a doctor\, and Groot\, a Catholic priest\, both undertook excavations in Japan and reported their work in major publications: Munro published Prehistoric Japan in 1908\, the first synthesis of Japanese archaeology\, and Groot obtained the first known PhD in Japanese archaeology\, in 1952. \nAbout the Speaker\nProfessor Simon Kaner is Executive Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures\, where he is also Head of the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage. He is concurrently Professor of Japanese Archaeology and Heritage at the University of East Anglia\, Norwich. He studied Japanese archaeology at the Universities of Cambridge and Kyoto. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Asiatic Society\, member of the Japanese Archaeological Association (日本考古学協会) and the Japanese Association for Archaeological Research (考古学研究会)\, and served on the Council of the Society of East Asian Archaeology. He has taught\, published\, curated exhibitions and undertaken archaeological fieldwork widely in Japan and Europe\, and is co-editor of the Japanese Journal of Archaeology. Many of his projects are comparative in nature (see e.g. www.global-britisharchaeology.org). His recent publications and exhibitions include An Illustrated Companion to Japanese Archaeology (2nd ed. 2021) and Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan (at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre\, 2022-23). He is currently directing two major research projects: Japan and the Maritime Silk Roads (see www.naratonorwich.org) and the Chikuma-Shinano River Project which will commence a new international field school in Japanese archaeology in Niigata prefecture in 2027. In 2021 he took part in the ‘relay’ talks on Japanese Archaeology seen from Overseas organised by the Nara National Institute for Cultural Properties published as https://sitereports.nabunken.go.jp/ja/138613 \n  \nTo join this talk online\, register here.
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/event/agm-japan-series-closing-lecture-prof-simon-kaner-towards-150-years-of-japanese-archaeology-and-its-broader-asian-connections/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
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