Kamisato ruins

...In a communal cemetery, the social structure of the group and the social position of the people buried there may be determined by the posture and orientation of the body, the type and presence of grave goods, and the anthropological examination of the bones to determine the sex and age of the people. At the Kamisato site in Ninohe City, Iwate Prefecture (early Jomon period), seven human bones were excavated from the bottom of a pit, and an interesting hypothesis has been made that they were a couple and their children, including a pair of fraternal twins, based on research into the proximal and distal nerves of the crowns of the permanent teeth. In addition, in Yayoi period graveyards in northern Kyushu, deceased individuals bearing Chinese or Korean mirrors or bronze objects as grave goods were buried in the same type of earthenware coffin (or wooden coffin) as other deceased individuals without grave goods, suggesting that deceased individuals bearing many grave goods were members of the same group as the others, and were not isolated and above the others. ...

*Some of the terms mentioned in relation to the Kamisato Ruins are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…共同墓地においては遺体の姿勢･方位や副葬品の種類･有無，および骨の人類学的検討による性別･年齢別の判定とによって，その集団の社会的構成や葬られた人びとの社会的位置を追究できる可能性もある。岩手県二戸市上里遺跡(縄文時代前期)では袋状竪穴の底から7体の人骨が出土し，これらは永久歯の歯冠近遠神経の研究から夫婦とその子どもたちで，一組の二卵性双生児を含むという興味深い想定が下されている。また九州北部の弥生時代の墓地においては，中国･朝鮮製の鏡や青銅器を副葬品としてもつ被葬者が，副葬品をもたない他の被葬者と同じ墓地に同種類の甕棺(あるいは木棺)に葬られており，副葬品をたくさんもった被葬者が，あくまでも他の人びとと同じ集団の一員をなしており，隔絶して他の人々の上に立っていたのではないことが想定できる。…

※「上里遺跡」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報