Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
郡家車塚古墳
DatedEst. 250–650 CE
Photo Saigen Jiro · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Gunge Kurumazuka Kofun (郡家車塚古墳, Gunge Kurumazuka kofun) is a keyhole-shaped burial mound at Okamoto-chō in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is not designated as a historic site. It is thought to have been built around the end of the 4th century, in the Middle Kofun period.
It has been examined in several excavations. Two burials lie side by side in the round part, and trial digging found personal ornaments in them.
Read on Wikipedia2 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.
Article
郡家車塚古墳
Cobbles and rows of cylindrical haniwa, including finned cylindrical haniwa, were found on its surface.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 郡家車塚古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 郡家車塚古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
The mound stands at the northern end of a low terrace (the Tonda plateau) on the north bank of the Yodo River in northern Osaka Prefecture. It is keyhole-shaped, with its front part facing west, and has two tiers. Cobbles and rows of cylindrical haniwa, including finned cylindrical haniwa, were found on its surface.
The mound is 85.6 m long. The round part has two tiers, a diameter of 51.3 m and a height of about 7.4 m; the front part also has two tiers and is about 3.8 m high.
The burial structures lie at the top of the round part. The first, at the centre, is a split-bamboo-shaped wooden coffin in a clay enclosure; the second, to its east, is a split-bamboo-shaped wooden coffin buried directly. The two lie side by side, east to west, with the head to the north.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 郡家車塚古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 郡家車塚古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Trial digging in the burial structures recovered the following. The first structure contained one black-lacquered spearhead. The second contained one four-beast mirror 12.4 cm in diameter; some lacquered vertical combs; one jade comma-shaped bead (magatama) and one jasper magatama; 14 magatama of green tuff; 4 jasper tubular beads and 5 of green tuff; one jasper date-shaped bead; 18 abacus beads of jasper and green tuff; 26 small glass beads; and 227 small beads of jasper and green tuff.
The haniwa from the mound are ordinary cylindrical haniwa (late Phase II), morning-glory-shaped haniwa and finned cylindrical haniwa, together with house-shaped and jar-shaped figurative haniwa.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 郡家車塚古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 郡家車塚古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
A survey was made in 1965 by Shimagami High School, Osaka Prefecture, and finned cylindrical haniwa were collected in 1982. From 1992 to 1994 the Takatsuki City Board of Education carried out a survey, excavation and ground survey, with reports published in 1994, 1995 and 1996. A further excavation took place in 1998 ahead of house building, with a report in 1999.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Japanese kofun tumuli
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 period takes its name from them. The most distinctive form is the keyhole-shaped mound (zempō-kōen-fun), with one square end and one round end seen from above, but there are also plain round mounds, double-rectangle mounds and square mounds. Orientation is not fixed: in the Mozu group at Sakai, some round parts face north and others east.
The largest is Daisenryō kofun at Sakai in Osaka, the biggest kofun in Japan, thought to have been built over some twenty years in the middle of the fifth century. By common acceptance it is the tomb of Emperor Nintoku, and the Imperial Household Agency treats it as such, but this cannot be confirmed because the mound has not been excavated. It stands in the Mozu group, which once had more than a hundred tombs of which fewer than half remain; the group and the neighbouring Furuichi cluster were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019. The mounds were built on a plateau overlooking Osaka Bay, near the ancient coastline.
Dating rests on mound shape, pottery and grave goods. Haniwa, which means "clay circle", are terracotta cylinders and figures of houses, animals and people that were arranged in rings and rows around and on top of the mounds. Smaller kofun are very numerous and sit in groups in every region of Japan.
When visiting, look for the moat that surrounds the larger mounds, for the stepped outline of terraces, and for reconstructed haniwa in museums and parks beside the tombs.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Kofun, Wikipedia: Daisen Kofun, Wikipedia: Haniwa, Wikipedia: Mozu Tombs · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 250–650 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megalithic mounds in Japan; this site has not been dated itself. Japanese kofun burial mounds were mainly constructed between the middle of the 3rd century and the early 7th century AD.Source for this date
Where it stands
Japan
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 34°51′16″ N, 135°35′39″ EFor a GPS or map app: 34.85436, 135.59412
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q55535917wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Gunke Kurumazuka Kofun, zenkei.jpgSaigen JiroCC0
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "郡家車塚古墳" (Japanese), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Japanese): 郡家車塚古墳CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q55535917CC0