TACKLING AN UNPREDICTABLE FUTURE; THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DISASTER-LED ARCHAEOLOGY IN JAPAN
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-01-20

The recent large-scale earthquake in Kumamoto, which caused extensive damage to cultural heritage including castles, temples and shrines. Now, as happened previously in Kobe and Tohoku, the effects of the quake are having an impact on underground archaeological heritage as well. Japan has suffered at least three severe earthquakes in the past two decades, and regrettably a number of seismologists and geologists predict another quake within several decades. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, archaeologists have been faced with a number of post-disaster challenges in both archaeological studies and heritage issues; 1) rescuing heritage, 2) reconstructing community heritage, 3) managing and/or operating intensive rescue excavation prior to reconstruction development, 4) investigating traces of past disasters during excavation and 5) coping with the creation of new heritage (memorial monuments). These five topics are closely associated with each other, and were often discussed together during strategy meetings for the future of the affected communities. It is with this in mind that we propose the need for a disaster-led archaeology. Disaster-led archaeology would, by necessity, be a fatalistic subject, and should be considered as a kind of ‘public archaeology’ which works towards disaster prevention and risk management for archaeologists living in earthquake prone countries like Japan. The discipline would be a new archaeological field with an interdisciplinary and international character. Bringing this new field of archaeology about will no doubt be very challenging, however, it would also be an opportunity to promote several aspects of contemporary archaeologies. This paper will review the impact of disasters on Japanese archaeology and heritage management since 1995, and explore the challenges and perspectives of disaster-led archaeology based on cases from Japan, with a desire to promote cooperation beyond just countries and regions.


Okamura, Katsuyuki (Osaka City Cultural Properties Association)