Archaeology Day

What Is Archaeology Day?

Every June 18th is "Archaeology Day" (考古学出発の日, Kōkogaku Shuppatsu no Hi) in Japan. On June 18, 1877, American zoologist Edward S. Morse (エドワード・モース) arrived in Japan. The very next day, June 19, while traveling by train from Yokohama to Shinbashi, he spotted layers of shells in a cutting just past Ōmori Station — the Ōmori Shell Mound (大森貝塚, Ōmori Kaizuka). Morse's subsequent excavation of the site, conducted with Japanese students, introduced scientific archaeological methods to Japan and effectively founded Japanese archaeology as a modern discipline.

Edward Morse and the Ōmori Shell Mound

Edward Sylvester Morse (1838–1925) had come to Japan to study brachiopods (shell-bearing marine animals that resemble clams), but his June 1877 discovery redirected both his activities and the course of Japanese science. The Ōmori Shell Mound proved to be a Jōmon period (縄文時代) site containing pottery, bone tools, and human remains from Japan's prehistoric past. Morse's careful stratigraphic excavation — recording the layers and contexts of finds — was a methodological innovation that contrasted with the treasure-hunting approach that had previously characterized Japanese antiquarian interest in old sites. His 1879 publication on the Ōmori shell mound established the standards for Japanese archaeological reporting.

Japan's Archaeological Heritage

Japan's archaeological record is extraordinarily rich — the islands were inhabited from at least 30,000 years ago, with the distinctive Jōmon culture (characterized by some of the world's oldest known pottery, from about 16,000 years ago) followed by the Yayoi culture (rice farming, bronze and iron working), traditionally dated from around the 4th–3rd century BCE, though recent research suggests rice farming began several centuries earlier. Major archaeological sites — from the Sannai Maruyama Jōmon settlement in Aomori to the Yoshinogari Yayoi site in Saga and the vast Kofun burial mound complexes of the Yamato period — have transformed understanding of Japan's deep past.

Archaeology in Japan Today

Japan conducts a very large volume of archaeological excavation — thousands of excavations each year, mostly in advance of construction projects under Japan's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. This rescue archaeology (緊急発掘, kinkyū hakkutsu) has produced remarkable discoveries including the Uenohara Jōmon site in Kagoshima and continued revelations at Yoshinogari.

Fun Facts

• Jōmon pottery: Japan's earliest Jōmon pottery — dated to about 16,500 years ago — is among the oldest known pottery in the world (with some early examples in China dated even older), predating pottery in the Middle East and challenging previous assumptions about the relationship between pottery and settled agriculture.
• Sannai Maruyama: The Sannai Maruyama site in Aomori Prefecture — a large Jōmon settlement occupied for approximately 1,700 years (from about 5,900 to 4,200 years ago) — has revealed a complex, semi-sedentary society of considerable organizational sophistication, including large wooden structures that required coordinated community effort to build.