A fourth-century clay figure depicting a human with a shield has been found at a burial mound here, the oldest such figure ever found in Japan, local officials have announced.
The figure is a "haniwa," a type of clay figurine made in ancient Japan. It was discovered from the Chihara Ohaka burial mound in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, say local board of education officials.
The figure depicts a human head (17 centimeters by 16 centimeters) wearing a triangle-shaped helmet and a cylindrical body with a shield (47 centimeters by 50 centimeters) attached in front. The height of the complete figure is presumed to have topped one meter.
The figure's face is flat and colored with red pigments and has holes engraved for the eyes and the mouth. The nose and eyebrows appear to have been made with clay that was lost in later years. Beneath the mouth is a rendering of a line tattoo.
The haniwa was found scattered in pieces in a moat on the eastern side of the burial mound, leading officials to speculate that the figure fell off of the mound.
Until now, haniwa including one unearthed from the early fifth-century Hakayama burial mound, among the Furuichi tomb group located in the Osaka Prefecture cities of Habikino and Fujiidera, were the nation's oldest known shield-bearing haniwa.
Yamato court rulers had their tombs built in the Furuichi tomb group, so the Chihara Ohaka burial mound probably entombed a powerful local figure, the board of education officials said.
Shield-bearing haniwa are categorized separately from human-shaped haniwa from an archaeological point of view. While human-shaped haniwa, including those representing warriors, were standardized in shape and placed in groups to depict rituals and other events, no identical shield-bearing haniwa have been found so far, leading researchers to believe that shield bearer haniwa were placed individually on the fringes of burial mounds as "guards."
Source: Mainichi Daily News [February 25, 2011]
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| The shield-bearing haniwa unearthed from the Chihara Ohaka burial mound in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, is pictured on Feb. 24. (Mainichi) |
The figure depicts a human head (17 centimeters by 16 centimeters) wearing a triangle-shaped helmet and a cylindrical body with a shield (47 centimeters by 50 centimeters) attached in front. The height of the complete figure is presumed to have topped one meter.
The figure's face is flat and colored with red pigments and has holes engraved for the eyes and the mouth. The nose and eyebrows appear to have been made with clay that was lost in later years. Beneath the mouth is a rendering of a line tattoo.
The haniwa was found scattered in pieces in a moat on the eastern side of the burial mound, leading officials to speculate that the figure fell off of the mound.
Until now, haniwa including one unearthed from the early fifth-century Hakayama burial mound, among the Furuichi tomb group located in the Osaka Prefecture cities of Habikino and Fujiidera, were the nation's oldest known shield-bearing haniwa.
Yamato court rulers had their tombs built in the Furuichi tomb group, so the Chihara Ohaka burial mound probably entombed a powerful local figure, the board of education officials said.
Shield-bearing haniwa are categorized separately from human-shaped haniwa from an archaeological point of view. While human-shaped haniwa, including those representing warriors, were standardized in shape and placed in groups to depict rituals and other events, no identical shield-bearing haniwa have been found so far, leading researchers to believe that shield bearer haniwa were placed individually on the fringes of burial mounds as "guards."
Source: Mainichi Daily News [February 25, 2011]