Dolmen - Dolmen

A type of megalithic tomb widely distributed in China, the Korean peninsula, and Japan. In North Korea, three or four slabs are erected to create a square stone chamber, and a large flat stone is placed on top to create a table-shaped tomb, which is called a 'shiki'. In the southern part of the Korean peninsula, there are many goban-shaped tombs with large blocks of stone as the supporting stones, but after World War II, surveys in the Korean peninsula revealed that 'shiki tombs without supporting stones' became known throughout both the north and south, and the name 'futaishi' type dolmens was proposed. In Japan, there are the 'shiki' and 'goban' types, which were introduced to the northwest Kyushu region along with agricultural techniques in the late Jomon period, and are distributed in Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, and Kagoshima prefectures. They were found in clusters up until the early Yayoi period, and underground they had pits, stone coffins, stone chambers, and jar coffins. In the middle period, their distribution spread, and large joint-mouth jar coffins could be seen, which is a feature not found on the peninsula. In addition, at the Sugu site in Fukuoka Prefecture, more than 30 Western Han Dynasty mirrors were discovered in a jar coffin under a deformed dolmen, and it is believed to be the tomb of a king of the Na Kingdom. However, by the second half of the 1st century AD, most of the mirrors had disappeared.

[Fujio Oda]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、朝鮮半島、日本に広く分布する巨石墳墓の一形態。北朝鮮で板石を3～4枚立てて方形石室をつくり、平たい大石をかぶせた卓子形のものを支石と称するのに由来する。朝鮮半島南部では支石が塊石となった碁盤(ごばん)形のものが多いが、第二次世界大戦後の朝鮮半島における調査で「支石のない支石墓」が南北を通じて知られるようになり、蓋石(ふたいし)式支石墓の名称が提唱されている。わが国には縄文時代晩期に農耕技術とともに西北九州地域に伝来した蓋石式、碁盤式があり、福岡、佐賀、長崎、熊本、鹿児島県に分布している。弥生(やよい)時代前期までは群集しており、地下には土壙(どこう)、石棺、石室、甕棺(かめかん)などが設けられている。中期になると分布も広がり、大型の合口(あわせぐち)甕棺などがみられるのは半島にない特色であろう。また福岡県須玖(すぐ)遺跡では変型支石墓下の甕棺から三十数面の前漢(ぜんかん)鏡が発見され、奴(な)国の王墓とされている。しかし西暦1世紀後半ごろまでにはほぼ姿を消してしまった。

［小田富士雄］

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