SuGoiSuす語彙す
History › Yayoi
弥生 · YayoiGraves17 sentences

墓と身分のちがい

Graves and Social Rank

The shape of graves in the Yayoi period differed from region to region.

In northern Kyushu there are many jar-coffin graves.

A jar-coffin grave is a grave in which the body is placed in a large jar and buried.

Sometimes two jars were joined mouth to mouth and used together.

In the Kinki region and eastern Japan, many square-ditch burial mounds (hōkei shūkōbo) were made.

A hōkei shūkōbo is a low, square mound of earth with a ditch dug around it.

Offering pots were sometimes placed in the ditch.

In the late Yayoi period, even larger graves were made.

A large grave made by piling earth high is called a mounded tomb (funkyūbo).

Mounded tombs are thought to be graves of powerful chiefs.

The Tatetsuki mounded tomb in Okayama Prefecture is one of them.

Graves contain grave goods (fukusōhin), things that were put in together with the dead person.

Grave goods include bronze swords, bronze mirrors, and beads (tama).

Tama are ornamental beads made of jade or glass.

Graves that held rich grave goods are thought to be the graves of people of high rank.

There are also graves with few grave goods, or none at all.

From these differences we can see that there were gaps in social rank.

Read it in the course, with quiz →
‹ 登呂遺跡まつりと信仰 ›