A typology was established for stone cist burial based on the construction methods of stone cist tombs hitherto excavated in the mid-western region of the nation for this study. Based on such results individual stone cist tomb was analyzed to set a st...
A typology was established for stone cist burial based on the construction methods of stone cist tombs hitherto excavated in the mid-western region of the nation for this study. Based on such results individual stone cist tomb was analyzed to set a stage for it, and looked into the meaning of each stage. In this chapter, such findings are summed up.
First of all, the age was roughly categorized into the 1^(st) period of 平羅里 site and 館山里 site the 2^(nd) period of site 吳石里 site and 寬倉里 site, and the 3^(rd) period of 麻田里 site and 山儀里 site based on reviewing of the dwelling sites and storage pits as well as the existing research findings. In particular storage pits and developed paddy fields were also examined at 痲田里 site and 山儀里 site of the 3^(rd) period, which was different from the instances of the other periods.
The stone dagger, which was one of the most frequently excavated articles, was chosen to determine the time interval in the examination of excavated artifacts from the individual site. Time difference based on the changes of attribute among the periods was not determined as a result. However, the examination of the dwelling sites revealed that stone cist tomb at 館山里 site went parallel with the stage of 休岩里 site in terms of both type of pottery and the plain shape of the dwelling site, and we concluded temporarily the period to be around the 8th century BC. It was estimated that stone cist tombs from which 有節柄式 stone daggers were excavated belonged to a little earlier period than that of 松菊里 site, judging from detailed attributes of the stone dagger.
We found that stone cist tombs of the mid-western region could be categorized into three periods based on our findings on the excavated artifacts from the stone cist tombs and the dwelling sites examined along with the stone cist tombs. The 1st period showed both 'type Ⅱ' and 'type IA' and no trace of jar burial was found in the period. The 2^(nd) period showed also 'type Ⅱ' and 'type IA' but with much less frequency, and the use of jar burial began appearing on a small scale during the period. The 3^(rd) period showed no trace of 'type Ⅱ' and 'type IA', but the pit tomb with stone covering, jar burial as well as stone coffin tombs were mainly used during the period.
Our findings on the construction methods for the stone coffins are as follows:
Firstly, 'type a' was exclusively used for building up the wall of the stone coffin tombs at 館山里 site and 平羅里 site.
Secondly, 'type b' was exclusively used for building up the wall of the stone coffin tombs at 汾江, 楮石里 site, 松菊里 site and 冠堂里 site.
Finally, a mixture of 'type a' and 'type b' was used for the wall of the stone coffin tombs at 痲田里 site, 山儀里 site and 寬倉里 site.
However, there was no typical form of treating the grave pit either in an individual site or throughout the entire sites. Based on such findings it was estimated that methods of building the wall of the stone coffin tombs and the way of forming the grave pit have attributes that differed from one another. In other words the pattern of forming the grave pit changed drastically over times while the building methods for the stone coffin tomb wall changed very slowly over times seen from the point of traditional conservatism for the burial.
We have concluded that stone wall building methods of the tomb construction have an attribute fit for typology classification, while grave pit forming pattern has not, as it responds very sensitively to changes over time.
We confirmed that 'type a', 'type b', and 'type c' appeared with each type occupying some fixed portion when stone wall construction methods of an individual site were put together.
We then took a look at outward changes of the erection groups attendant on the phased changes of the stone coffin tombs. As a result it was discovered that 'period 1' began from around the 8^(th) century BC, and typical 松菊里 type pottery was not excavated, but majority of the excavated articles consisted of pottery with notched strip on the rim or jar type pottery with the straight mouth in the period, which indicates that the period is still with the characteristics of the early Bronze Age. However, there were no features of the stone coffin tomb construction methods typical to this period. 'Period Ⅱ' began from the 5^(th) or the 6^(th) century BC, and the characteristics of this period was jar burial, a new method of the funeral ceremonies, was adopted. It was interpreted that adoption of the jar burial was a transformation from the flexed burial which is first burial to the secondary burial. It was concluded that such a transformation into the secondary burial would be a result of social changes, both internal and external, in the building group of the stone coffin tombs.
We found that the secondary burial became gradually widespread as the 'period Ⅲ' came to the surface, and that farming was extensively done in this period.