Thursday 14 May, 2026
6:30pm BST - 8:00pm BST
This lecture forms part of the Japan Studies: Past, Present and Future series in collaboration with the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
In person lecture at the Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Way
London,NW1 2HD and online via Zoom.
Speaker
Professor Simon Kaner (Executive Director, Sainsbury Institute)
About the Talk
In 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.
In 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.