Preserve the ruins from 20,000 years ago! Feel the time of eternity at the Underground Forest Museum!

Speaking of museums, artifacts excavated from ruins are carefully arranged and displayed.
A holiday where you look at the exhibits and think about what life was like back then is the perfect way for adults to spend their time.
However, the exhibits in the museum are limited to excavated items, and we can only imagine where they lived.
If you are really interested, you will need to go directly to the ruins.

However, here in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, there is
a museum that is rare in the world and exhibits and preserves the ruins as they were when they were excavated The name of the museum is ``Underground Forest Museum .
It's a unique name that you won't forget once you hear it.

This time, we will introduce you to the "Underground Forest Museum"!

Displaying the ruins as they were excavated!

``Jiro no Mori Museum'' is a museum where excavated ruins are displayed as they are.
As you enter the museum, the ruins of a huge wetland appear right before your eyes.

the Sannai Maruyama ruins are famous
in Tohoku This is a ruin from the Jomon period, and was the site of a village where buildings such as houses and warehouses were gathered.

On the other hand, the things on display at the ``Jiro no Mori Museum'' date back to the Paleolithic era.
There are no buildings, just the remains of bonfires and stone tools scattered about where people may have camped out for a day.
It is astonishing that such a one-day event from the Stone Age remains intact in modern times.

So, how did the remains of a one-day camp remain preserved for thousands of years?

The reason for this is probably that Tomizawa, where the Underground Forest Museum is located, is a wetland. The remains of the bonfires, which were originally supposed to be weathered by dirt and dust, became completely sealed by the mud of the wetland over time, and remained dormant in the ground forever without weathering or oxidizing. .

You can't help but see the romance in the eternal flow of time!

2nd floor exhibition room to learn about life at the time

The first floor of the museum the Tomizawa ruins as they were, but the second floor was completely transformed into a half-storey space where you could study the life of the time together with ``Dr. Tomizawa'' from the excavated items excavated at the Tomizawa ruins. It is an experiential exhibition room.

Dr. Tomizawa, an original character of the Underground Forest Museum, will reveal what kind of hunting life people lived at the time, based on the remains of bonfires and stone tools that have been excavated.

It's in a quiz format, so you can feel like you're thinking together. The structure is designed to be enjoyed by not only adults but also children, so if you visit with your family, you can have fun learning about history!

Recreate what happened 20,000 years ago! ice age forest

After passing through the exhibition room, you will reach the exit. But the journey back to the Paleolithic era is far from over.

In fact, the garden of the Underground Forest Museum is a garden planted with plants that were growing in the Tomizawa area at the time!

Its name is “ Ice Age Forest ”!

Although it was not possible to reproduce the extinct Tomizawa spruce, a similar tree, the red spruce, was used to recreate it. You can see the three zones that existed in Tomizawa at the time: forest, grassland, and wetland. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the landscape is displayed almost exactly as it was about 20,000 years ago.

It's fun to imagine what life was like back then, such as herds of deer coming to drink water and Paleolithic people making bonfires on slightly elevated places.

summary

The Underground Forest Museum is a rare museum in the world that displays ruins from 20,000 years ago. It is a facility where both adults and children can fully enjoy learning about life at the time and experiencing the scenery of the time.

If you want to feel the life of Sendai that has been going on for 20,000 years, please come and visit!

INFORMATION

• Name: Underground Forest Museum
• Address: 4-3-1 Nagamachi Minami, Taihaku Ward, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture 982-0012
• Phone number: 022-246-9153
• Official URL: https://www.sendai-c.ed.jp/~bunkazai/~chiteinomori/

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