Final Phase Burial Mounds in the Kibi Region

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

1.A project of excavating and surveying 7th century burial mounds at Sada, Hokubo-cho, Okayama-ken has been carried out from 1990 by the Department of Archaeology, Okayama University. The purpose of the project is to establish chronological framework of the final Kofun period in the Kibi region and to show the role of the local power of Kibi in the course of the re-organization of political hierarchy in Japan. The research of this Grant-in Aid is a part of this Sada Project.2.Sadakita Kofun, Sada Higashizuka Kofun and Sada Nishizuka Kofun have been excavated in Sada Project. Before the project, Sadakita Kofun had been almost unknown and Sada Higashizuka and Nishizuka had been mistaken as a keyhole shaped one. Through the course of this project, we revealed the accurate shape of these mounds and concluded that all of these square-shaped mounds were typical ones of final phase burial mounds. Coffins and grave goods of these burial mounds are carefully compared and the excavation report of Sadakita Kofun was published in 1995.3.Chronological series and dates of final phase burial mounds in the Kibi region has been established typically in the Hokubo-cho region. The order is : Sada Higashizuka Kofun, Sada Nishizuka Kofun, Sadakita Kofun and Oya No.1 Kofun. All were constructed successively in the 7th century AD.4.Mapping of the clustered burial mounds of the same period has been carried out at Miyori, Kiyone-son, Okayama-ken and in the Hokubo-cho region. Distribution map of Miyori was visualized by the Geographic Information System (GIS) and published on Inter-net.5.Chronology of the final phase burial mounds in the Kinai region has been reexamined and new chronology was publihshed. Next step was the reexamination of the chronology of preceding 6th century mounds. Although a framework was already established, details will be published later.