12 Facts About William Gowland

William Gowland FRAI was an English mining engineer who carried out archaeological work at Stonehenge and in Japan.

William Gowland has been called the "Father of Japanese Archaeology".

William Gowland attended the Royal College of Chemistry and Royal School of Mines at South Kensington, specialising in metallurgy, and worked as a chemist and as a metallurgist at the Broughton Copper Company from 1870 to 1872.

William Gowland began work in Osaka on 8 October 1872 on the three-year contract that was typical of many of the foreigners employed to aid the modernisation of Japan.

William Gowland's contract was repeatedly extended, and he stayed for 16 years, during which time he introduced techniques for the scientific analysis of metals, the production of bronze and copper alloys for coinage, and modern technologies such as the reverberatory furnace for improving the efficiency of refining copper ores.

William Gowland's expertise extended to areas outside the Japan Mint, and he served as a consultant to the Imperial Japanese Army, helping to establish the Osaka Arsenal for production of artillery.

William Gowland claimed to have been the first foreigner to have climbed Yarigatake in 1874.

However, William Gowland is best known in Japan as an amateur archaeologist, conducting the first truly accurate scientific surveys of numerous Kofun period burial mounds, which included numerous imperial mausolea.

William Gowland excavated burial mounds in Saga, Fukuoka and Miyazaki Prefectures on Kyushu, in Okayama Prefecture, and in Fukushima Prefecture north of Tokyo, in addition to numerous sites in the Kinki region.

William Gowland donated many of the artefacts that he brought back to England to the British Museum, as well as a collection of souvenirs from Buddhist temples.

William Gowland died in London on 9 June 1922 at the age of 79.

William Gowland was buried at St Marylebone Cemetery in East Finchley.