ARCHAEOLOGIA JAPONICA

Overview
TANIGAWA Akio1
Over ten years has passed in the 21st century, and it seems we are in for a period ofchange at the present. The wave of economic globalism is coming to our country, andas Japan’s “post-war society” has come to the end, social disparity and an aging society
with fewer children is becoming evident. Trends of archaeological study cannot beseparated from such situations surrounding Japan and the world.
Since study trends of each period and region are discussed in separate articles, theauthor would like to discuss some issues.
Looking over study trends of the Paleolithic to the Kofun period, research using naturalscientiﬁc methods occupies an important position in each period. The study themes
are multidisciplinary, such as paleoenvironment/paleoclimate, dating measurement,
subsistence, production site/material/technique, anthropology including phenotypic traits
and DNA analysis, and excavation methods and so on.
On the other hand, for studies after the ancient period, examples of introducing
natural scientiﬁc methods are less than preceding periods, while the connection between
historical archaeology and history is more important. In analysis of ancient pottery
with ink writing and engraving, the importance of consistent interpreting/understandingof contradicting data through synthetic examination of not only the writing itself but
also characteristics of each artifact, excavated situation, and accompanying artifacts
was pointed out. Also, study was done on terms (meiji) of pottery/ceramic recorded
in medieval documents, indicating the importance of document study in historicalarchaeology.
As for research technology, three-dimensional measurement technology has advanced
and study is now conducted using high precision survey maps. Progress of this study is a
result of introducing new technology.
Thus, an overall trend of ﬁscal 2015 Japanese archaeological study seems to bea big stream of methodological diversity regarding archaeology and expansion ofarchaeological research subjects. Methodological diversity means proactive introductionof natural scientiﬁc analysis in addition to traditional analysis methods of archaeology,
1 c/o

Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, 1–104 Totsukamachi, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo
169–8050, Japan
E-mail address not disclosed
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 5 (2017): 50–51© Japanese Archaeological Association50

JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 5 (2017): 50–51

TRENDS ●●●●IN ARCHAEOLOGYTITLE ●●●●IN JAPANand a movement to take in results and framework of thoughts from similar sciences like
cultural anthropology and history. Also, expansion of archaeological research subjects
means expansion of analyzed subjects due to methodological diversity, as well as
establishment of research/study for modern or contemporary sites such as Mietsu Naval
Yard and Tomioka Silk Mill that were not handled by archaeology in the past.
Also, our society surrounding archaeology is at the period of big change, and Japanesearchaeology is facing problems such as how to handle so called “internationalization,” agenerational change of researchers, a drastic decrease of researchers who support regional
study, a serious personnel shortage in local municipalities, educational environment anddevelopment of successors at universities, and so on. On the other hand, the spread ofpopulation interested in the world of archaeology in the future is suggested by various
efforts: publication of a guide book aimed to the public for Jomon period clay ﬁgurines,cookies in the shape of pot sherds, popularity vote for clay ﬁgurine characters, publicationof free magazines, creation of contemporary arts, and so on. These phenomena would
lead to a question of how to succeed and develop a wide and deep “world of knowledge”
fostered by Japanese archaeology.

© Japanese Archaeological Association51