1999/01/01 by Walter Edwards · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Japanese History and Culture #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Looting #History #Archaeology #Excavation #Ancient history #Style (visual arts) #Acheulean
paper · doi:10.2307/2668274
openalex publication_date 1999/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
T A PRESS conference held on 9 January 1998, archaeologists announced the discovery of a large cache of bronze mirrors at Kurozuka kofun i tl,, an early keyhole-shaped tomb located in the southeast portion of the Nara basin. The 128-meter mound had been under excavation by the prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute MIq: f tPR since August of the previous year; by late October its stone burial chamber yielded the first of what proved to be thirty-four mirrors. 1 Not only were these mirrors, brought to light after more than sixteen centuries, the largest cache to be recovered in recent memory, all but one were examples of the controversial triangular-rimmed style, sankakubuchi shinjakyo _ AtV -RUM, central to much of the debate in recent decades over the location of Yamatai g1p .2 As the magnitude of the discovery became clear over the ensuing weeks, word of the find began to circulate among archaeologists and other specialists in the study of ancient Japan, and by year's end some five hundred researchers had come to visit the site. Fearing that more widespread attention would invite looting before the mirrors could be properly excavated, photographed, and mapped in situ, the Kashihara Institute informed the various news media of the story in mid-November, and implored them to withhold pub-