東広島市長者スクモ塚第２号古墳発掘調査報告（第２〜４次調査）

The Chōja-Sukumozuka mounded tomb group (kofun gun) is located in Saijō-chō (Saijō Basin), Higashi-Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. It consists of three burial mounds, but one (No. 3) has disappeared. On top of the Chōja-Sukumozuka mounded tomb No. 2, a box-shaped stone coffin (stone cist; hakogata sekkan) was exposed, and there was an urgent need to examine this mound. After a measurement campaign, from 2017 to 2019, as part of “Field Practice in Archaeology” for archaeology majors at the Hiroshima University School of Letters, several excavations were conducted with the aim of clarifying the dimensions and burial facilities of the mound. The results of this survey indicated that the Chōja Sukumozuka mounded tomb No. 2 was a round mounded tomb (enpun) with a diameter of 17m or less. However, a grave with a direct burial of a wooden coffin (mokkan jikisō bo) was found. The construction of the burial facility was carried out after the one for the stone coffin.
The material and dimensions of the box-shaped stone coffin and the method of coating the vicinity of the coffin with white clay were similar to the coffins of the Senninzuka kofun in the Saijō Basin. It may be seen as a kind of elaborate burial facility. The famous Mitsujō mounded tomb has a total length of over 90m and is often noted as having a relationship with the Kinai (Yamato) polity being the largest keyhole-shaped mounded tomb in the Aki region. However, a closer look at the burial facilities reveals that it is the result of the development of funeral rituals in the area, ones that comprised elaborated box-shaped stone coffins.