Archaeologists found a sword and a bronze mirror in an ancient tomb near the southwestern Japanese city of Nara in late November last year. The find is sensational because the iron sword is the largest of its kind ever discovered, measuring 2.37 meters in length and 6 centimeters in width.
The artifacts, which date back to the 4th century, were found in the Tomio Maruyama tomb, which is about 1,600 years old, the Nara City Education Department and Nara Prefectural Archaeological Institute said Jan. 25. This tomb is the largest round burial mound in Japan, ten meters high and 109 meters in diameter. Nara, known for its well-preserved large temple complexes, was the capital of Japan from 710 to 784 under the name Heijō-kyō.
The sword is twice the size of any sword found in Japan to date, Riku Murase, an archaeologist with the Nara Archaeological Research Center, told Live Science. The heavily rusted weapon is so long that the scientists first thought they had found several swords in a row, the news agency “Kyodo News” reports.
It is a so-called Dakō sword. These weapons are common throughout Japan and are characterized by a wavy and curved blade. The archaeologist Stefan Maeder, an expert on Japanese swords and their production, explained to “Live Science” that the dakō swords had a ceremonial character; these were prestigious objects. Their shape can represent a serpent or a dragon; this may have served to increase the weapon’s magical power. However, this did not improve its effectiveness as a weapon. According to Murase, these great swords served as funerary objects to ward off evil spirits from the buried.
The sword discovered in Tomio Maruyama is the oldest of the 85 Dakō swords found in Japan to date. It is curved in six places to create the signature wavy effect. Its extraordinary size and shape reflect the advanced ironworking techniques of the Kofun period (approximately 300-710 AD). “These finds suggest that Kofun period technology goes far beyond what we imagined. These are metal masterpieces from that period,” Kosaku Okabayashi, deputy director of the Nara Prefectural Archaeological Institute, told the Kyodo News Agency.
There are an estimated 160,000 burial mounds from the Kofun period in Japan. According to archaeologists, the great burial mound of Tomio Maruyama may have been the tomb of an important person who was one of the supporters of the then rulers, the Imperial Yamato family. A coffin was discovered at the excavation site, but so far there are no human remains.
The bronze mirror found with the sword is shaped like a shield. With its dimensions – it is 60 centimeters high, 30 centimeters wide and weighs more than 12 kilograms – it is also the largest of its kind ever discovered in Japan. It was probably also made to ward off evil spirits.
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Source: Blick
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