Pit grave - Dokoubo

A human burial facility from the Yayoi period. When the soil is removed from a rectangular or oblong hole less than 2 meters long to a depth of about 30 centimeters, a long, narrow vertical hole with a flat bottom appears. Sometimes human bones remain, as well as bronze objects such as bronze swords that were buried with the grave, proving that it was a burial pit, and it was named a pit tomb. In examples such as the Tano ruins (Yayoi period) in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, a wooden coffin made of split boards remains. It is likely that the human body was not buried directly in the ground, but was placed in a wooden coffin or wrapped in straw mats and buried in the pit, but over the long period of time, it is thought that organic matter such as wood has turned to soil.

The practice of digging a pit in the soil layer that forms the foundation beneath the topsoil to bury the dead was already practiced in the early Jomon period. The bones of a woman buried in a flexed position with shell rings on both arms from the Todoroki Shell Mound in Uto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, were buried in a pit with several natural stones placed around it. A pit with several flat stones laid on top of it is called a stone-covered pit grave.

[Esaka Teruya]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

弥生(やよい)時代の人体埋葬施設。長さ2メートル未満の長方形ないし長楕円(ちょうだえん)形の穴を深さ30センチメートルぐらいにわたり埋土を取り除くと、底面平坦(へいたん)な細長い竪穴(たてあな)が現れる。ときとして人骨が残存し、副葬の銅剣など青銅器もあり、墓壙(ぼこう)であることが判明し、土壙墓と名づけられた。兵庫県尼崎(あまがさき)市田能(たのう)遺跡（弥生時代）などの例では、割板による木棺が残存していた。おそらく、人体をじかに土中に埋葬したものではなく、木棺に入れるとか、莚(むしろ)に包むなりして、墓壙に埋葬したが、長い年代を経るうち、木質など有機質のものが土に化してしまったものと思われる。

　表土下の基盤をなす土層を掘りくぼめて遺体を埋葬する竪穴を掘ることは、すでに縄文文化早期から行われていた。熊本県宇土(うと)市轟(とどろき)貝塚の貝輪を両腕にはめた女性屈葬人骨も、土壙内に埋葬され、土壙の周囲に自然石が数個配置されていた。土壙上に平石を数個敷き並べたものは石蓋土壙墓とよんでいる。

［江坂輝彌］

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