THE DOLMENS OF ASIA 



complicated type. They seem to have contained 

 the remains of emperors and their families. They 

 consist each of a circular mound, to which is added 

 on one side another mound of trapezoidal form. 

 The megalithic tomb-chamber or the sarcophagus 

 which sometimes replaces it lies in the circular 

 part of the mound. The total axial length of the 

 basis of the whole mound is in a typical case — 

 that of Nara (Yamato)— 674 feet, the diameter of 

 the round end being 420 feet. The mounds have 

 in most cases terraced sides, and are surrounded 

 by a moat. In early times it seems to have 

 been the custom to slay or bury alive the ser- 

 vants of the emperor on his mound, but this was 

 given up about the beginning of the Christian 

 era. 



These imperial double mounds seem to begin 

 about two centuries before the Christian era, and 

 to continue for five or six centuries after it. Many 

 of them can be definitely assigned to their owners, 

 and others are attributed by tradition. Thus a 

 rather small mound at the foot of Mount Unebi 

 (Yamato) is considered to be the burial place of 

 the Emperor Jimmu, the founder of the Imperial 

 dynasty, and annual ceremonies are performed 

 before it. 



The Japanese Emperors are still buried in 

 terraced mounds, and in the group of huge stone 

 blocks which have been placed on the mound of 

 the Emperor Komei, who died in 1S66, we may be 



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