vol.20 (2024)
IMAJO Michi Gunma Archaeological Research Foundation Key words: Kofun period, Joso region, Musa, box-shaped stone coffin, horizontal stone chamber, construction technique, regional dynamics Box-shaped stone coffins are characteristic of burial facilities for small and medium-sized tombs in the Joso region during the late Kofun period. The stone materials used for box-shaped stone coffins and horizontal stone chambers in the Joso region are mostly hewn stones such as sandstone and mica schist produced on Mt. Tsukuba. However, there has been little research on hewn stone box-shaped stone coffins in terms of their transition and relationship to horizontal stone chambers. In this paper, focus is placed on the construction techniques of hewn stone box-shaped stone coffins in the Musa in the Joso region, and their similarities with horizontal stone chambers are examined to explore the composition of the local community based on the burial facilities. In the study of box-shaped stone coffins, it was confirmed that such coffins were largely composed of one- tiered side walls and two or more-tiered side walls starting in the latter half of the 6th century. Box-shaped stone coffins with two or more tiers of side walls initially consisted of multiple tiers and multiple stones for the side walls and the small edge, and were covered with irregularly shaped floor stones. In some cases, these coffins were found to be constructed in two stages, with two stones per stage on the side walls. Based on an examination of the construction techniques of horizontal stone chambers, a close relationship between the construction techniques of horizontal stone chambers and those of box-shaped stone coffins was evident. Furthermore, the regional structure of the Musa, which is formed by the interrelationship of multiple small areas, was restored by understanding the burial facility forms and the sharing of techniques used in these burial facilities within the local community. Specifically, there are several small areas that built large tombs and each of them adopts a distinctive horizontal stone chamber. Among them, the small areas that adopt the “Himezuka type” and “Danozuka type” (Kusano 2016) horizontal stone chambers for large tombs are influential to the horizontal stone chambers and box-shaped stone coffin in each small area. The small area where the Yamada-Homa tombs group is located may be a hub small area for interaction with the interior. The study in this paper reveals that interrelationships among the subregions in the Musa, as evidenced by the construction techniques of burial facilities, became apparent from the late 6th to the early 7th century, and that the local community underwent a transformation. |
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