Field School on the Road: An Archaeological Experience without a Site

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Indigenous Issues in Hokkaido Island, Japan" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Hokkaido University’s Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies sponsors an annual International Archaeological Field School on Rebun Island. The site, spanning epi-Jomon to historic Ainu periods, sits on a sandbar that has over time cut off a freshwater source to the Sea of Japan, creating an ideal occupation area. The summer program was to resume in 2022 following the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, due to continued concerns about health-related issues, the excavation was canceled. But what do you do with the students from the UK, Canada, Russia, Taiwan, and the United States who signed up for the class?! How do you provide a phenomenal archaeological experience without a site to work on? The answer was to take to the road and introduce the archaeological phases represented in the Rebun Island Hamanaka sites through museums, site visits, and visits to Ainu communities; to learn about the devastation to traditional cultural landscapes due to dam construction and water fluctuation; to absorb the importance of community-based and Indigenous archaeological practice; and to tie it all together through the archaeological investigative process.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology and Indigenous Issues in Hokkaido Island, Japan   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36440.0