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Interpretive illustration of a typical Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)

Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)

Daibō Kofun

Japan

Datedc. 501–600 CE

Interpretive 3DWhere it standsSources

No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.

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About this site

Overview

The Daibō Kofun (大坊古墳) is a Kofun period keyhole-shaped burial mound in the Tamana neighbourhood of the city of Tamana, Kumamoto, Japan. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1977.

The mound contains a multi-chamber stone burial chamber with painted decoration, and on the basis of the excavated items it is believed to have been built in the mid-6th century.

Read on Wikipedia3 min readCC BY-SA 4.0

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

Est. 4000–1200 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical for this type

The published range for this kind of monument in this region. It is not a date for this site.
Source for this date

Article

Daibō Kofun

3 min read429 wordsRead on Wikipedia

It stands on the right bank of the Kikuchi River, which flows into the Ariake Sea, at the end of a hill that runs from east to west.

Daibō Kofun

Description

Sources for this section

The Daibō Kofun is a zenpō-kōen-fun (前方後円墳), shaped like a keyhole with one square end and one circular end when viewed from above. It stands on the right bank of the Kikuchi River, which flows into the Ariake Sea, at the end of a hill that runs from east to west. The mound is orientated to the west. Its total length is about 40 meters (estimated original length: 54 meters), with a circular portion 20 meters in diameter and 4 meters high.

A multi-chamber horizontal-entry stone burial chamber opens to the south from the centre of the posterior circular portion. The chamber is about six meters long. The inner chamber measures 3.4 by 2.7 meters with a height of 2.8 meters, and the anterior chamber measures 1.3 by 2.2 meters. The side walls are made of split andesite, and the inner chamber has an elaborate stone roof of cut tuff.

Excavations

Sources for this section

The tumulus was excavated in 1963, and the entire structure was revealed. It is a decorated kofun, with triangular and circular patterns on both sides, on the inner wall and on the front door stone of the inner chamber. The decorations on the pillars of the first and second gates of the stone chamber and on the large sarcophagus-like structure in the inner chamber were made using vermilion and ultramarine. The stone sarcophagus in particular bears numerous continuous triangular patterns arranged in five tiers, with several circular patterns within.