The Ground We Stand On

September 8, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

Stories and imagination are crucial for our survival, for piecing together the fragments of our lives, for giving us a sense of meaning and maybe even purpose.

The other day a friend took me to a museum in Sendai that I had heard about, but had never been to. At first blush it seemed rather small and plain, but behind that apparent simplicity were astonishing discoveries.

The museum was constructed over land that a farmer had hoped to turn into a rice paddy. Now it is fully within city limits, but remains an island of green surrounded by apartments, several bus stops, a subway station, and even a large shopping mall.

Several years ago, a farmer was opening land for planting when he hit a hard object. As he dug, he sensed he had come upon something extensive and very rare, and maybe important. So, he informed city officials of his find. Sure enough, it turned out he had encountered the 20,000-year-old remains of Paleolithic trees.

 

Soon scientists began the work of uncovering this remarkable discovery. And to their amazement, they found not only a maze of trees and their roots, but also the remains of a camp fire and a small hole filled with stone tools. They also found pine cones and animal spores containing seeds of flowers, grasses, and various trees. Those precious finds allowed them to piece together an understanding of life at that time.

(The square sign on the left indicates the remains of a campfire. The one on the right marks a hole filled with stone tools. They were left exactly as they were found.)
 

People then were hunters-gatherers. The area was much cooler than it is now, so the vegetation was different. And since more land was exposed because of glaciers, there was more area for animals to roam and hunters to follow them.

Surely, on the exact spot where the museum stands today, a few hunters had paused, maybe to rest, maybe to make tools, maybe to spend the night. We cannot know. But they did leave a few traces, which now serve as a remarkable link to a mysterious part of the earth’s and humanity’s ancient past.

Now, on the museum grounds is a replicated Paleolithic forest with trees, shrubs, grasses, and marshes typical of that era. This natural environment adds greatly to the awe-inspiring experience of viewing such ancient remains.

And upstairs above the actual trees, there is a small, but informative museum of artifacts and other findings from the Paleolithic Era and later. It was very humbling to be standing over land that has known humans for over 20,000 years, to see the tools people of that time actually used, and to imagine the harsh life they lived.

This museum, small as it is, is an impressive reminder of nature’s and humanity’s remarkable evolving together through time. And thus, maybe now more so than ever, it remains a noteworthy wonder, not only for Japan, but for the entire world. 

Love,
Anne