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Watanuki Kannon-yama Kofun — 綿貫観音山古墳 墳丘

Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)

Watanuki Kannon-yama Kofun

Also known asKannon-yama Kofun

Japan

Datedc. 500–600 CE

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Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons

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About this site

Overview

The Watanuki Kannonyama Kofun (綿貫観音山古墳) is a keyhole-shaped burial mound of the Kofun period, located in the Watanuki neighborhood of the city of Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1973 and dates from the late 6th century.

Its grave goods were designated National Important Cultural Properties in 1994, and in 2020 the collective status of 3346 artifacts from the tomb was raised to that of a National Treasure.

Read on Wikipedia3 min readCC BY-SA 4.0

Age sources

How old this site is, and who says so.

Range across all claimsc. 500–600 CE

Measured

A physical measurement of this site: a radiocarbon date, a tree-ring count, a luminescence date, or a record that can itself be dated.

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

500–599 CEHow this date was established: Historical sourcesMeasured

A physical measurement of this site: a radiocarbon date, a tree-ring count, a luminescence date, or a record that can itself be dated.
Source for this date

Article

Watanuki Kannon-yama Kofun

3 min read494 wordsRead on Wikipedia

The tumulus lies on a plain on the west bank of the Ino River, six kilometers east of the city of Takasaki, and was constructed facing north.

Watanuki Kannonyama Kofun

Description

Sources for this section

The tumulus lies on a plain on the west bank of the Ino River, six kilometers east of the city of Takasaki, and was constructed facing north. Its total length is 97 meters. The anterior rectangular portion is 64 meters wide and 9.4 meters high, in two tiers, and the posterior circular portion is 61 meters in diameter and 9.6 meters high, also in two tiers. The tumulus has a double horseshoe-shaped moat.

The burial chamber is a horizontal, trapezoidal, stone-lined room in the middle of the posterior circular portion, opening towards the southwest. It was found intact. Its total length of 12.65 meters is the largest found in Gunma Prefecture. The wall stones are andesite blocks and the ceiling stones are sandstone. The blocks weigh up to 22 tons, and as there is no source of these materials in the neighborhood of the mound, they had to be transported from a considerable distance.

Excavations

Sources for this section

The Gunma Prefectural Board of Education conducted an archaeological excavation from 1967 to 1968. From the excavated Sue ware pottery, the date of construction is estimated to be the latter half of the 6th century AD.

Haniwa were found in various locations around the tumulus, but no trace of fukiishi was discovered. The haniwa depict men, women, boys and girls in various costume, including what appear to be warriors in armor and with shields, farmers and aristocrats. There are also house-shaped haniwa, animal-shaped haniwa (horses and chickens), and haniwa in the form of equipment and farm implements. Taken as a group, they appear to narrate an event, possibly the accession of a new chief.