Serizawa Chōsuke

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Serizawa Chōsuke ( Japanese. 芹 沢 長 介 ; born October 21, 1919 in Shizuoka , Shizuoka Prefecture ; † March 16, 2006 ) was a Japanese archaeologist who taught at Tōhoku University . He was one of the leading researchers in the field of the Japanese old stone and Jōmon period . He examined archaeological sites of the Paleolithic across the country and worked in particular on the chronology of the finds .

Life

Serizawa's father, Serizawa Keisuke , was a dyer and textile designer who was named a Living National Treasure in 1956 and who ran the Serizawa Keisuke Museum of Handicrafts in Sendai from 1989 until his death . Chōzuke himself graduated from Meiji University with a degree in geography and history . He attended the graduate college and took a position at Tōhoku University in 1963. He was appointed assistant professor and then full professor and worked from 1984 at Tōhoku Fukushi University. In 2006 he died in a Sendai hospital at the age of 86.

Serizawa's original research area was the Jōmon period , but he thought it was possible based on the results of the radiocarbon method that people were present in the Japanese archipelago before this time. At that time, the Iwajuku excavation site was just beginning to be developed. After Serizawa had been consulted by the amateur archaeologist Tadahiro Aizawa and he had shown him the stone implements that had been found, Serizawa was convinced that these were older finds from the Upper Paleolithic . Until then, archeology believed that there had been no Paleolithic in Japan. Serizawa focused on researching the Paleolithic from that point on, and he argued that there was also a Middle and Old Paleolithic in Japan. A dispute arose among experts as to whether the finds that Serizawa had unearthed were actually stone artefacts made by man or stones with natural fractures. Finally, Serizawa's hypothesis about the existence of a Japanese Paleolithic was able to assert itself among experts.

Serizawa's theses and research came under renewed criticism when Fujimura Shin'ichi discovered the paleolithic falsifications . The discussion about the presence of humans in the Paleolithic reignited. Although the forgeries greatly impaired Paleolithic research and especially the chronology, there is now veritable evidence of a Japanese Paleolithic.

He had been a corresponding member of the British Academy since 1977 .

Serizawa's important excavations

Works

  • Serizawa, Chōzuke: 日本 旧石器時代 (roughly: The Japanese Paleolithic ). Iwanami, 1982, ISBN 978-4-00-420209-7
  • Serizawa, Chōzuke: 縄 文 日本 陶磁 大 系 (about: Jōmon outline of Japanese ceramics ). Heibon, 1989, ISBN 978-4-582-23513-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hiroto Kawabata: 実 は 世界 の 最先 端 だ っ た 旧石器時代 の 日本 列島 . National Geographic, accessed August 31, 2013 (Japanese).
  2. ↑ Fellows: Chosuke Serizawa. British Academy, accessed July 29, 2020 .
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Serizawa is the family name, Chōsuke the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Serizawa, Chōsuke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 芹 沢 長 介 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Shizuoka , Shizuoka Prefecture
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 2006