A research paper written by Junzo Uchiyama, lead author and Visiting Professor at Institute for the Study of Ancient Civilizations and Cultural Resources, Kanazawa University, and his collaborators won the Ben Cullen Prize 2024, awarded to the outstanding archaeological paper in the world. The award was announced on June 11, 2024, in the issue of “Antiquity ".
?Antiquity, a British archaeological journal, was founded in 1927 and is the most prestigious peer-reviewed journal (published six times a year) in the world archaeological community. It has been widely read by archaeologists working in various areas and periods throughout the world. The Ben Cullen Prize, selected annually by Antiquity, is one of the most prestigious awards given to outstanding research papers in recognition of their "outstanding contribution" to archaeology world-wide.
【Awarded Paper】 (Published in June 2023)
Title of paper：Disaster, survival and recovery: the resettlement of Tanegashima Island following the Kikai-Akahoya 'super-eruption ', 7.3 ka cal BP
Author： Junzo Uchiyama, Mitsuhiro Kuwahata, Yukino Kowaki, Nobuhiko Kamijō, Julia Talipova, Kevin Gibbs, Peter D. Jordan & Sven Isaksson
The paper for which this award was given demonstrates the impact of the 7300-year-old Kikai-Akahoya super-eruption in south-western Japan during the Jomon period, the largest catastrophic eruption (*1) in the recent 30,000 years of earth history, to Tanegashima Island. The authors used various analytical methods through the interdisciplinary research program "CALDERA" in collaboration with Nordic universities. Understanding the long-term effects of such super-disasters will help us learn about how modern society that faces to such huge disasters as the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January this year, extreme weather events associated with rapid global warming, pandemics, and so on, can survive and transform itself into a highly sustainable society.
Figure 1: Contemporary eruption of Sakurajima (June 2011, photo by Junzo Uchiyama)
Southern Kyushu is home to one of the largest concentrations of calderas in the world and is famous for its active volcanic activity. Sakurajima is a volcano located on the margin of the Aira caldera (northern part of modern Kagoshima Bay), which experienced a catastrophic eruption 30,000 years ago.
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?*1：Catastrophic eruptions
A catastrophic eruption is a type of volcanic eruption where an enormous amount of magma erupts all at once and cover the ground with pyroclastic flows and volcanic ash on a scale of several ten to one million square kilometers. In Japan, eruptions occur at intervals of several thousand to 10,000 years, with the Kikai-Akahoya eruption being the most recent.
Note that general information on the Kikai-Akahoya eruption is outdated in Wikipedia and general books, and there are some erroneous reports on the age and scale of the eruption. For the latest information on the scale of the eruption, see the following. According to this report, the eruption was larger in scale than previously thought.
Shimizu S. et al. Submarine pyroclastic deposits from the 7.3 ka caldera-forming Kikai-Akahoya eruption.Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 448 (2024) 108017.
URL：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2024.108017
Click here to see the press release【Japanese only】
Journal： Antiquity
Researcher's Information：Junzo Uchiyama
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