Rows of Burial Jars
Rows of Burial Jars ~Resting Place~
The burial jar is a distinctive type of coffin found only in the northern part of Kyushu. A body was bent into an unglazed jar and then the jar was buried in the ground, which seems to have been a popular means of burial for about 200 years, during the middle of the Yayoi period. Approximately 15,000 jars are supposed to have been buried in mounds in Yoshinogari. Among them, over 2,000 jars are buried in a 600-meter long row on both sides of the path in the middle of the northern mounds. (The path is thought to have been a way to visit the graves or a line to separate them by ranks.) People at the time seem to have paid homage to the deceased.
Types of Burial Jars
There are two types of burial jars. One is a two-piece jar split in the middle. The other is a simple jar covered with a big flat stone as a lid. Although the difference of the use between the two has not been cleared yet, differences in social standing might be related.