Satsuma No.11 tumulus:
its historical context and significance
KITAYAMA Mineo1
ABSTRACTThe Satsuma No.11 tumulus, located in Takatori town in the southern part of the Nara Basin, is aburial mound of the Early Kofun period (the fourth century AD). The excavation of this tumulus in2007 (January-March) by the Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara prefecture, revealed two
burial facilities on the rectangular platform of the burial mound yielding various grave goods that
demonstrate the social status of the persons buried in the tumulus. As a result of excavation andanalysis of finds, it is argued that the tumulus reflects social structure in the fourth century AD.
KEYWORDS: keyhole-shaped tumulus, grave goods, social organisation, Kofun period, Japan

Introduction and the location of the tumulus
The Satsuma No.11 tumulus islocated in the Satsuma area ofTakatori town, in the north of Naraprefecture in the southern part of theNara Basin (Figure 1, Plate 1). The
tumulus stands on a hilltop thatoverlooks an alluvial fan. The heightfrom the base to the top of the hill isabout 6m. The burial mound has its
main axis from north to south, andits rectangular platform faces northFigure 1. Position of Satsuma No. 11 tumulus
towards the end of the hill.
The tumulus looks over an alluvial fan created by the Matsuyama-gawa River and theKibi-gawa River. Mount Hiburi is situated to the north of the hill on which the tumulus
stands. The Matsuyama-gawa and the Kibi-gawa Rivers flow westwards to join the1Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara prefecture, 1 Unebi-cho, Kashihara city, Nara prefecture,
Japan 634-0065 (ktymm@hotmail.co.jp)
Category: Report Received: 19 November 2013; Accepted: 13 December 2013
JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 1 (2013): 41-52

KITAYAMA Mineo

Soga-gawa River, which passes by to thewest of the tumulus, heading through anarrow valley to the east of Mount Kunimi
towards the Nara Basin. Thus the location ofthe tumulus suggests a relationship between
the tumulus and the plain along theSoga-gawa River.

Excavated features
Shape and construction of the burial
mound

Plate1.1.Satsuma
Satsuma No.
No. 11
11 tumulus
tumulus seen
seen fromfrom East
EastPlate

The burial mound of the tumulus is keyhole-shaped in plan, consisting of a circularmound and a rectangular platform, and measures 27.5m in total length (Figure 2, Plate 2).
The rear side of the circular mound is cut by a ditch. Excavations suggest that the moundwas built by cutting into the original geographical feature of the hill, not by piling up
soil. The construction method of the circular mound has not been confirmed since thisarea was not excavated.

Burial facilities

Two burials were found in this tumulus, the west and east burials. Both comprised a pit
containing a wooden coffin (Figure 3, Plate 3). The west burial is 2.3m long north tosouth and 2.0m wide east to west (these measurements are maximum estimates since theburial had been partly damaged). The coffin in the west burial was cylindrical andwooden, made by a hollowing technique, buried in a pit dug into the mound (Plate 4).
The east burial was located about 1.5m east of the west burial. The east burial was
2.3m long north to south and 0.8m wide east to west. Although it was badly preserved,
this burial seems to have also comprised a cylindrical wooden coffin made by ahollowing technique, judging from the observation of the stratigraphic sections. Thebase of the coffin seems to have been gently curved (Plate 5).

Finds

The main objects excavated in the burials are, in the west burial, a shumon-kyo bronze
mirror (Figure 3, Plate 6) (no. 1 in the illustration), glass beads (nos. 2-36), an ironsword (no. 37), an iron hoe (no. 38) and an iron sickle (no. 39); and in the east burial ahokakukiku-kyo bronze mirror (no. 40), comma-shaped beads (nos. 41-46), a glass bead(no. 47) and an iron warabite-tosu knife (no. 48).

© Japanese Archaeological Association

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Ditch

Figure 2. General plan with locations of trenches and reconstructed base of the mound© Japanese Archaeological Association43

KITAYAMA Mineo

Some artifacts were also foundoutside the burial pit, including afragment of bronze mirror (no.
49), a bangle-shaped stone object(no. 50), a sword-shaped stoneobject (no. 51), cylindrical beads(nos. 52-55),  comma-shapedbeads(nos. 56-78), mortar-shapedbeads (nos. 79-80), glass beads(nos. 81-94) and Haji warepottery (nos. 95-101). These
artifacts, except for the pottery,most likely formed part of theassemblage of grave goods. They
originated either in the excavatedPlate
2.
Themoundunderexcavation
seenfromNorthwest
Plate 2. The mound under excavation seen from northwest
burials on the rectangularplatform or in a possible further, unexcavated, burial on the circular mound. These
objects were probably disturbed from their original position as a result of grave-robbing.
Two Haji ware pots were identified. Pot A has a composite neck and pot B probably
had a straight neck. Most of the fragments found clearly belong to these two pots. It
seems likely that these pots were originally placed around the burials. It is not clear,
however, whether these pots were complete or broken when deposited.

Historical context
Date of construction

The typological features of the grave goods point to dates between the later part of theEarly Kofun period and the beginning of the Middle Kofun period. What is probably themain burial on the circular mound most likely dates to before the beginning of theMiddle Kofun, as the burials excavated on the rectangular platform are thought to belater than the main burial on the circular mound. In addition, the pot with a composite
neck also indicates a date in the Early Kofun, assuming that this pot was deposited at thetime of the construction of the burial on the circular mound, which corresponds to thelater part of the fourth century.

Implications

Based on the results of these excavations, we now consider the significance of theSatsuma No. 11 tumulus in the Early Kofun period (the fourth century AD) for our© Japanese Archaeological Association

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SATSUMA NO. 11 TUMULUS

Figure 3. Burial facilities and grave goods from Satsuma No. 11 Tumulus© Japanese Archaeological Association45

SATSUMA NO. 11 TUMULUS

In contrast to these large tumuli
with many grave goods, the tumuli
in the southern region of the Nara
Basin are distinctly small. Thelargest burial mound in this regionis the Niizawa No. 500 tumulus(no. 3 in Figure 5) with a length of60m, and the others are less than30m long. However, the numberand quality of the grave goods
from the Niizawa No. 500 tumulus
are comparable to the large tumuli
in the eastern region. TheTaniguchi No. 1 tumulus (no. 2 inFigure 5), the Kamotsuba No. 1Plate4.
WestburialseenfromNorthPlate West burial seen from Northtumulus (no. 5 in Figure 5), andthe Satsuma No. 11 tumulus (no. 1 in Figure 5) are also fully equipped with a standard
fourth century set of grave goods, although less numerous than in the large tombs. Basedon this evidence, it seems that the concept of the burial ritual represented by the uniform
sets of grave goods was shared among tumuli regardless of the size of the burial mound.
Many archaeologists who specialize the study of the Kofun period assume that the sizeof a burial mound reflects the politico-economic power of the buried person, based on
the amount of labour invested in the construction of burial mound. Tsude Hiroshi (1991)
interprets variation in the size of burial mounds as reflecting social differentiation andthe ranking of social power during the Kofun period. Based on his interpretation, theeastern and northern regions of the Nara basin was where the most powerful elites lived,with the western region being home to the middle class of social elites and the southern
region representing the lowest ranks.
The interpretation by Tsude was until recently corroborated by the distribution of large
settlements. For example, the large settlement at the Makimuku site, which dates to theearly part of the fourth century, is located near the large tumuli in the eastern region, andthe Sugawara-Higashi site appeared in the northern region during the late fourth century
when a number of large tumuli were built in the same region. These examples clearly
demonstrate that the distribution of large tumuli was associated with large settlements inthese regions.
However, recent excavations also have revealed a large settlement at the Akitsu site in
the southern region. Although the excavation at the site is still in progress, this is clearly
one of the largest settlements in the Nara Basin, with houses accompanied by large-scale© Japanese Archaeological Association

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fences or enclosure walls which
are unusual at other settlements.
The discovery of this site
indicates that the relations
between large tumuli and large
settlements attested in the easternand northern regions cannot be
the case in the southern region
where no large tumuli are present.
Therefore, Tsude’s interpretation
does not appear to be applicableto this region.
The example of the southern
region suggests that the presenceof large tumuli does not Plate 5. East burial seen from Northwest
necessarily represent economic Plate 5. East burial seen from Northwest
superiority of one region over the other regions. Although we need to discuss more fully
how the distribution of tumuli can be related to the economic conditions of a given
region, it is clear social structure and organisation cannot be properly understood if
arguments depend only on the size of burial mound.
It is highly likely that the size of burial mounds demonstrates the power of the social
elites who built the tumuli and were buried in them according to the amount of labour
invested in their construction. In this sense, the interpretation of the size of burial
mounds as representing the social ranking system remains an important aspect indiscussing social structure and social organisation during the Kofun period. However,burial practice, including the construction of burial mounds, cannot give the entire
picture of Kofun period society. It is possible that some social elites or chiefs chose not
to demonstrate their social power by the construction of large tumuli. The example of thesouthern region, where there was an economically important settlement but no large
tumulus, is evidence for diversity the display of social power during the Kofun period.
Kofun society is clearly distinguished by the development of interrelated social powers
and social competition as demonstrated by the construction of tumuli of various sizes.
The entire social structure and organization of the Kofun period however, needs to beconsidered from various dimensions, not only the size of burial mounds. Future study
should be oriented towards understanding the social organisation of everyday life
reflected in settlements.
The Satsuma No. 11 tumulus has a small burial mound measuring less than 30m in
length, and the grave goods, although varied, are limited in number. However the© Japanese Archaeological Association48

SATSUMA NO. 11 TUMULUS

Shumon-kyo bronze mirror

fragment of bronze mirror

bangle-shaped
stone object

iron hoeHaji ware pot A
cylindrical beads

iron sickle

iron Warabite-tosu knife
sword-shaped
stone object

mortar-shaped beads

comma-shaped beads

significance of this tumulus in
Kofun society is by no means
negligible when the economic
and political contexts in which
this tumulus was constructed
aretakenintotheconsideration by relating it tonearby settlements and to abroader regional perspective
across the Nara Basin.

Preservation

The Satsuma No. 11 tumulus issituatedpartlyonland
purchasedbytheNara
prefecture for road construction
glass beads(the rectangular platform) andpartly on private land (thecircular mound). The remains
iron sword
Hokakukiku-kyo bronze mirror
in the area owned by the Naraprefecture were due to be
Plate 6. Grave goods from the Satsuma No. 11 tumulus
destroyed and levelled for thePlate 6. Grave goods from the Satsuma No.11 tumulusroad, but the results of theexcavation have caused a change to the original plan so that was survives of the tumulus
will be preserved. The remains on the private land, however, may be threatened in thefuture. It is therefore necessary to take administrative action in order to preserve theremains of the tumulus in their entirety.

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Aoyagi Taisuke, Mr. Suzuki Hiroaki, Mr.
Uesugi Akinori, and Mr. Yamashita Daisuke. All plates are copyright of the Archaeological
Institute of Kashihara, Nara prefecture, and are reproduced with permission.

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KITAYAMA Mineo

References
KITAYAMA Mineo, (ed.) 2012. The Satsuma No.11 tumulus excavation report. Nara:
Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara prefecture. (In Japanese)
TSUDE Hiroshi, 1991. Making the state in ancient Japan. Journal of Japanese History
343: 5-39. (In Japanese)© Japanese Archaeological Association

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SATSUMA NO. 11 TUMULUS

Figure 44.
5. Distribution of major tumuli and settlements in the Nara basin© Japanese Archaeological Association51

KITAYAMA Mineo
Early part of the fourth century AD
length of the burial mounds(m)
350

300

250

200

150

100

50

010 27 7 8 29 28 23 24 33 26 15 30 13 14 16 17 11 31 32 12

Eastern region

5

Northern region

Western region

6

Southern region

others(nos. in fig.4)Later part of the fourth century AD
length of the burial mounds(m)
350

300

250200150

10050018 21 34 22 19 38 25 37 20 36

Eastern region

46 43 42 40 45 39 44

55 54 53 51

3 1 4 249 48 47

Northern region

Western region

Southern region

othersFigure 5. Size distribution of major tumuli in the Nara basin
Figure5. Size
distributionof major
in theNarabasin
(nos.
1-55
in Figure4. Length9,tumuli
35,41,50,
fig. 5 ofGraphshowing
the 52sizeunclear)of burial mounds(nos. 1-55 in Figure 4. Length of 9, 35, 41, 50, 52 unclear)© Japanese Archaeological Association

52(nos. in fig.4)