February 5, 2005 - Kofun in the Nara Basin, Tenri Photo Gallery by Paul Caudill at pbase.com

February 5, 2005 - Kofun in the Nara Basin, Tenri

(majority of images copied from the course site)

One heck of a field trip. Where else could you possibly get the opportunity to crawl into a 6th century burial mound?

For those of you not in the know, kofun are the distinctive tumuli that were the predominant form of ceremonial burial in Japan from the 2nd-6th centuries BC.

	A recreation of the burial chamber of a kofun - note the grave goods (mirrors, daggers)		An off-limits kofun. Many kofun, by decree of the Imperial Household Agency, are cordoned off.
They are supposedly the tombs of the ancestors of the Imperial Family, though there is an awful lot of controversy surrounding..	...many of the IHA's claims. This mound is the purported to be that of the 10th emperor, Suijin, who ruled from 230-258 AD	A view of a kofun from the outsite
	Checking out a cannibalized kofun	Often the stone used to construct the kofun was cut up and used for building castles or making smaller tombstones.	And the fun part of the trip - getting down in the dirt and crawling into one of these mothers!
		Inside the kofun...
	It's a party, Japanese burial-style
On top of the sarcophagus...		Eric having fun committing acts of desecration (yes, he was inside the sarcophagus!)	As you can see, there was a hole in the lid, allowing a few of us to crawl in and get dead Japanese nobleman on our pants
		The class, with Prof. Edwards at the front

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