Book Review: Burial Mounds in Europe and Japan
Submitted by Aska on Monday, 18 March 2019 Page Views: 3399
ReviewsCountry: Japan
The editors include an introduction which summarizes the history of research into burial mounds in Germany and that of in Japan, emphasizing the significance of comparative archaeology.
Then German and Japanese archaeologists alternately provide articles on the following subjects : 1. investigating history of mounds; 2. origin and development of mounds; 3. (stratified) society in that era; 4. positional features of mounds in topography; 4. the relationship between mounds and nearby (fortified) settlements; 5. the emergence of metalwork and its estimation as mortuary goods in that era.
This is not a book on the megalithic monuments of the neolithic era but on the mega-earthen mounds of the later Bronze and Iron ages. Although not emphasized, the European era ‘Hallstatt’ and ‘La Tène’ which are the objects in this book belong to the early stages of the Celtic culture. This book has the potential to be very significant as one of very few physical, printed comprehensive information sources on the characteristic mega-archaeological monuments of Japan, written in English that is currently in print.
But I feel that the Japanese archaeology is the amalgam of science and mythology. When an outstanding mound is excavated, Japanese mass media and archaeologists get excited over guessing who is the buried person, like amateur Egyptologists. No epitaph tablets have been discovered, except in one rare case now lost, because Japanese people did not have their own writing in the early 'kofun' mound era, Chinese characters were imported later in the 5th or 6th centuries. The world’s greatest tomb Daisen Kofun is attributed to Emperor Nintoku without any evidences, he was an incredible being who lived for 143 years! As some authors mention in this book, the mounds which are regarded as the imperial mausoleum are under the control of the Imperial Household Agency, and nobody, even academic investigators or university professors can enter nor excavate the mound. A spiral of nonsense!
The lengthy term for the shape of Japanese burial mounds, which the authors of this book also utilizes, “keyhole shaped tomb with round rear mound” is also nonsense. Literally “front square/rear round mound” is a hypothesis by a samurai antiquarian who insisted that the shape of the mounds modelled the funeral cart, like a rickshaw with angular handle and round platform, the episode is also mentioned in this book. Did our ancestors had the precognition and wanted to make their chieftains’ tombs resemble a future super-vehicle? It is interesting that the German authors in this book report carts as the mortuary goods in the “princely grave” mounds.
I hope that comparative archaeology will help the evolution of Japanese archaeology from the mythical larva stage! Review by Hatsuki Nishio (Aska)
Comparative and Contextual Perspectives edited by Thomas Knopf, Werner Steinhaus and Shin’ya Fukunaga.
Paperback; 240 pages; 162 figures, 2018 Comparative and Global Perspectives on Japanese Archaeology.
Available both in printed and e-versions.
Printed ISBN 9781789690071. Price £38.00. EPublication
Epublication ISBN 9781789690088. Price £16.00
Information from the Publisher:
Burial Mounds in Europe and Japan brings together specialists of the European Bronze and Iron Age and the Japanese Yayoi and Kofun periods for the first time to discuss burial mounds in a comparative context. The book aims to strengthen knowledge of Japanese archaeology in Europe and vice versa.
The papers demonstrate many methodological and interpretive commonalities in the archaeology of burial mounds in Japan and Europe and provide a series of state-of-the-art case studies highlighting many different aspects of burial mound research in both regions. Topics addressed by both European and Japanese specialists include research histories, excavation methods, origins and development of graves with burial mounds, the relationship of burial mounds to settlements and landscape, and above all administrative power and ritual.
About the Editors
Thomas Knopf is Professor of Pre- and Protohistory at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He has conducted fieldwork at some of the largest Celtic settlements in Europe. He works on theoretical themes including the concept of continuity, and is a specialist in human-environments relationships in prehistory. He works together with soils scientists and archaeobotanists focussing on the development and the perception of landscapes.
Werner Steinhaus is Lecturer in Archaeology at Hiroshima University in Japan. After graduating from Freiburg University in Germany he undertook postgraduate research at Ōsaka University in Japan, specialising in the archaeology of the Kofun period. He curated the largest overseas exhibition of Japanese archaeology Die Zeit der Morgenröte, held in Germany in 2004-2005.
FUKUNAGA Shin’ya is Professor of Archaeology at the Graduate School of Letters at Ōsaka University in Japan. He graduated and received his doctorate from the Department of History, Graduate School of Letters, Ōsaka University. Professor Fukunaga is a member of the Science Council of Japan and the Committee for the World Heritage Inscription of the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun groups of mounted tombs. His publications include From the Yamatai Kingdom to the Yamato Court (Ōsaka University Press, in Japanese).
Available from Archaopress
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