Open lecture with Peter Jordan, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University

Abstract

The Japanese archipelago is situated in the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, one of the world’s most tectonically active zones. With dense urban populations living in close proximity to different volcanic geohazards, living with elevated environmental risk is a core feature of Japanese life. In fact, intimate co-existence with volcanic hazards extends back into the depths of Japanese prehistory, and the long-term perspectives offered by working with historical, archaeological, and geological data, can generate detailed insights into the cultural impacts, immediate responses, and also deeper societal legacies of major catastrophes. This lecture examines the Kikai-Akahoya (K-Ah) ‘super-eruption’, one of the world’s largest ever volcanic catastrophes within the last 12,000 years. Exploding without warning out of the sea floor, this apocalyptic event devastated environments and annihilated communities across SW Japan around 7,300 years ago. The talk explores research from CALDERA, the new Nordic-Japan Programme in ‘Disaster Studies’ led by Lund University, and funded by VR, in collaboration with Japanese partners. The emerging new insight is that at least some people were able to survive K-Ah in a few sheltered pockets scattered across Kyushu: these small groups of survivors held on, found new ways to exist in the devastated landscapes, and eventually rebuilt their communities and social networks. The talk examines some of these survival strategies, and ends by reflecting on how research into past disasters can inform current debates, in Japan and globally, about future societal imaginaries pertaining to threats, hazards, cataclysms, and deeper existential sustainability.  

 

Peter Jordan is Professor of Archaeology at Lund University Sweden, and also holds a Professor II position at the Global Station for Indigenous Studies and Cultural Diversity at Hokkaido University Japan. He currently directs a new VR project on the impacts and legacies of the K-Ah volcanic super-eruption in SW Japan (2025-). Just prior to coming to Lund University in 2021, he held a JSPS Invitational Research Fellowship at Hokkaido University, and has held various academic positions in the Netherlands and the UK.