GOLDEN BELLS TOMB — HIRANO AND TAKIGUCHI 441 



vessel and numerous pottery vessels in direct association with a few 

 bone fragments and five teeth suggests that this person had at one 

 time been placed in a wooden coffin. 



Near the entranceway another person had been buried on a chlorite 

 schist slab, perhaps in a wooden coffin which had long since disin- 

 tegrated. The bones of the body were decomposed, but the skull was 

 in a rather good state of preservation. In association were gilt-bronze 

 earrings and a crystal, amber, and glass bead necklace. From the 

 location of this burial, it would appear that the stone chamber had 

 been reopened, after the sarcophagus had been buried and the entrance- 

 way closed, and this burial placed just inside the entrance. 



Before examining the remains of the sarcophagus itself, the mate- 

 rials lying around the coffin should be mentioned. In front and by the 

 side of the sarcophagus lay a necklace consisting of over 500 glass 

 beads, a bronze mirror, two pairs of earrings, five gold bells, seven 

 silver tips of a bow, one iron spearhead, numerous iron arrowheads, 

 four gilt-bronze saddles, three bronze horse bells, three bronze vessels, 

 two gilt-bronze ornaments, a chatelaine, a wide variety of harness and 

 trappings for horses, and over 200 pottery vessels ( pi. 3 ) . Inside some 

 of the pottery vessels, which had been used for food offerings, were the 

 remains of several types of shellfish. Sand and silt filtering into the 

 chamber had packed the pottery and other remains so tightly together 

 that excavation was extremely difficult. The fact that the hundreds of 

 pottery vessels were buried in three layers suggests further that some 

 of them originally had been on wooden shelves and gradually as the 

 chamber silted up and the shelves rotted, another group of vessels fell 

 to tlie chamber floor soon to be covered with more sand as it filtered in 

 through the cracks in the ceiling and wall. 



CONTENTS OF THE SARCOPHAGUS 



The large stone coffin had been placed in the chamber parallel to the 

 long side of the wall with its head toward the south, feet to the north. 

 When the stone lid was raised, disclosing the golden articles, the iron 

 swords, bronze bells, knives, and beads, it was evident we had discov- 

 ered the tomb of a very important high official who had lived over 1,300 

 years ago. Sand, which had filtered through some of the cracks in the 

 stone walls of the coffin, and the dust of decomposed bones, garments, 

 and other perishable objects filled the interior to a depth of 15 centi- 

 meters. Apparently only one body had been buried inside. The 

 bones had completely disintegrated ; only the teeth remained. From 

 eruption and wear of the teeth, we can conclude that they were from a 

 young male, probably in his mid-twenties. In positions in the coffiii 

 which would suggest their original placement on the body of the de- 

 ceased man, were a pair of earrings, a mirror wrapped in hemp cloth 



