online version: ISSN 1864-6018
print version: ISSN 1864-6026
Contents
The Ulaanbaatar 2014 papers:
Panel: Starting Over Again: the Early Palaeolithic Research in Japan Today (Fumiko IKAWA-SMITH and SATŌ Hiroyuki)
Editor's Note
The 6th Worldwide Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in June 2014 welcomed almost 300 participants from ca. 150 institutions in 18 different countries around the world. Among the wide range of topics that have been presented, the session entitled “Starting Over Again: the Early Palaeolithic Research in Japan Today” – co-organized by Fumiko IKAWA-SMITH (McGill University, Canada) and SATŌ Hiroyuki (University of Tōkyō, Japan) –, provided fresh insight into the aftermath of the so-called “Fujimura Scandal”. It was in the year 2000, that the disclosure of manufactured evidence at Palaeolithic sites had brought about not only the annulment of research results related to numerous Early and Middle Palaeolithic assemblages, but also – quite generally – had a negative impact on archaeological research in Japan and its public image.
Research on the evidence for early human habitation in the Japanese archipelago continued, however, and a lot of new data have been collected since. The archaeological community in Japan still holds ambivalent views about excavation results from Early and Middle Palaeolithic sites, and it was against this backdrop that the session “Starting over Again” attempted to bring together the primary investigators and their first-hand reports from the field to shed light on the efforts of the last 15 years and present the results to an international gathering of East Asian archaeology scholars for their own evaluation.
Of the seven papers that had been presented in this session at SEAA6 (see: SEAA6, schedule, June 8), five have been prepared for publication in BSEAA and submitted in January this year. I am very grateful to Fumiko IKAWA-SMITH and SATŌ Hiroyuki for agreeing to publish with BSEAA and for continuous support during the editing process. I would also like to thank the authors KURODA Atsushi, KIKUCHI Kyōichi, KOMUKAI Hiroaki, TAKEDA Yoshio, UEMINE Atsushi, MATSUFUJI Kazuto, SHIBATA Masaki, and WADA Yoshifumi for their efforts and contributions. Again, Michael MOOS did a fantastic job preparing the layout of the essays and adjusting the numerous figures for online publication and print.
To facilitate the work of both editor and web manager, BSEAA from now on will be published in PDF format only. As always, SEAA members and authors enjoy a 3-months preview period, before the articles will be unlocked for open access. The PDF of the complete print versions of BSEAA remains reserved for SEAA members and authors. The articles of BSEAA will continue to appear online at varying intervals over the year. We are thus trying to diminish the usual delay between submitting a paper and having it published. Aiming at providing a means for the publication of SEAA conference papers, field reports, project outlines, conference reports, book reviews, etc., BSEAA also welcomes essays on issues in East Asian archaeology from both SEAA membership and outside experts. The Bulletin of the Society for East Asian Archaeology (BSEAA) is not peer-reviewed. The editor(s), however, reserves the right to seek for additional opinion, to edit the manuscripts, or to decline the publication of manuscripts inappropriate to the aims and objectives of SEAA (see contribution guidelines for further information).
After a long hiatus, it is now my sincere pleasure to present Volume 3 of BSEAA, and I am confident it will find much interest among SEAA and outside readership.
Barbara SEYOCK
Bochum, 19 April 2016
Recommended citation
Please cite BSEAA online articles as in the following example:
SATŌ Hiroyuki 佐藤宏之, Recent Research on the Early and Middle Palaeolithic in Japan: an Overview, in Bulletin of the Society for East Asian Archaeology (BSEAA) , Vol. 3 (2016), pp. 29-35.
If you like to have a manuscript published in BSEAA, please look up the Contribution Guidelines, and send an e-mail to the editor.