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Atagoyama Kofun — 愛宕山古墳 (行田市) 墳丘

Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)

Atagoyama Kofun

Japan

Datedc. 1 BCE–700 CE

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Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons

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What the sources say

The Atagoyama Kofun (愛宕山古墳) is a kofun burial mound located in the city of Gyōda, Saitama Prefecture, in the Kantō region of Japan. The tumulus was designated a National Historic Site in 1938 and re-designated as a Special National Historic Site of Japan in 2020 as part of the Sakitama Kofun Cluster.

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Age sources

How old this site is, and who says so.

Range across all claimsc. 1 BCE–700 CE

Estimated

A reading of this site: what its style says, or a statement published about it.

Where it sits in time

The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.

The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.

  1. Göbekli Tepe9600 BCE
  2. First farming9500 BCE
  3. Avebury2600 BCE
  4. Great Pyramid of Giza2560 BCE
  5. Stonehenge2500 BCE
  6. Bronze Age collapse1200 BCE
  7. Rome founded753 BCE
  8. Parthenon447 BCE
  9. Hadrian's Wall122 CE
  10. Machu Picchu built1450 CE
12,000 BCE8,000 BCE4,000 BCE1 CE1,500 CE
This site

How this date was established: Stated by the sourceEstimated

A reading of this site: what its style says, or a statement published about it.
Source for this date

The full article

Atagoyama Kofun: the whole story

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In brief

Sources for this section

Atagoyama Kofun is a kofun burial mound in Gyōda, Saitama Prefecture, in the Kantō region of Japan. It forms part of the Sakitama Kofun Cluster and lies near the parking lot for the Sakitama Kofun archaeological park. It is adjacent to Gyōda Futagoyama Kofun, the largest mound in the cluster.

The mound is 53 meters long, making it the smallest tumulus in the Saitama Kofun Cluster. Its keyhole-shaped plan has a circular rear portion and a square front portion. The circular section measures 30 meter diameter x 3.4 meter high, while the rectangular section measures 30 meters wide x 3.3 meters high. As with the cluster’s other keyhole-shaped tumuli, it had a rectangular double moat.

Excavation produced many haniwa, including cylinders, “morning-glory”, houses, horses, men with swords, and other male figures. The burial chamber was not excavated because the mound was in very poor repair and was in danger of collapsing. The tumulus dates from the middle of the 6th century AD. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1938 and re-designated as a Special National Historic Site of Japan in 2020 as part of the Sakitama Kofun Cluster.

Its name comes from an Atago Shrine that once stood on the mound. More generally, kofun are the great burial mounds of ancient Japan, built mainly between the middle of the third century and the early seventh century CE. The keyhole-shaped zempō-kōen-fun form, with one square end and one round end when seen from above, is the most distinctive, although plain round, double-rectangle, and square mounds also occur.

Overview

Sources for this section

The Atagoyama Kofun has a total length of 53 meters, and is the smallest tumulus in the Saitama Kofun Cluster. It is a zenpō-kōen-fun (前方後円墳), which is shaped like a keyhole, having one square end and one circular end, when viewed from above. As with the other keyhole-shaped tumuli in this cluster, the Atagoyama Kofun had a rectangular double moat. A large number of haniwa have been excavated from this tumulus, including haniwa shaped as cylinders, "morning-glory", houses, horses, men with swords, and other male figures. The tumulus dates from the middle of the 6th century AD. The burial chamber has not been excavated as the mound was in very poor repair and was in danger of collapsing. Its name comes from an Atago Shrine which was once located on the tumulus.

The Atagoyama Kofun is near the parking lot to the Sakitama Kofun archaeological park, and is adjacent to the Gyōda Futagoyama Kofun, the largest kofun in the cluster.

Overall length

53 meters

Posterior circular portion

30 meter diameter x 3.4 meter high

Anterior rectangular portion

30 meters wide x 3.3 meters high