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A giant six-foot-long “demon-slaying” sword has been found buried in Japan for over 1,600 years.
The iron weapon was discovered in a tomb of the Tomiomaruyama burial mound in Nara and is believed to have been placed there to help the deceased ward off evil spirits in the afterlife.
Archaeologists discovered a 16 meter long wooden box deep in the mound, which housed the sword and a 60 cm long shield made from a mirror.
While many demon-killing swords have been found in Japan, it is the largest and oldest found in the country.
The “national treasures” suggest that the person in the tomb was an elite who may have served in the military.
Archaeologists have discovered a six-foot sword in a 1,600-year-old tomb, which they said was supposed to help the dead fight off evil spirits in the afterlife
Since last year, archaeologists have removed layers of earth from the burial mound, which is 100 meters wide and up to 10 meters high.
The hill is known as ‘kofun’ after the Kofun period in Japanese history, when they were built between 300 AD and 710 AD. Live Science reports.
“So far, we have conducted aerial laser surveys (first survey) and excavation surveys (second to fifth surveys) and obtained important results in elucidating the structure of the burial mounds,” archaeologists shared in a statement. press release announcement of the discovery.
The investigation revealed “ritual” spaces enclosed within the mound, which led the team to a burial pit that contained a clay coffin containing the coffin.
“The coffin is believed to have been placed in a deeply recessed area of the bottom of the burial pit, and a thin layer of clay and sand has leveled out about a foot from where the coffin lid would have been placed,” the archaeologists said.
And in the chest were the giant sword and the mirror.
The six-inch sword known as dakō was probably never used, only shaped to be placed in the mound with the deceased.
The iron weapon was discovered from the Tomiomaruyama burial mound in Nara in a tomb to help the deceased ward off evil spirits in the afterlife
The sword was buried in a layer of clay that still retained the outline of the weapon when archaeologists found it
The dakō sword is designed with a wavy blade reminiscent of a snake, and because of its sheer size, researchers initially thought they had found several swords side by side, reports Kyodo news.
This artifact is also the oldest ‘demon slaying’ weapon found in Japan – over 80 of them have been found anywhere.
The mirror, shaped like a tortoiseshell and made of copper, leaned diagonally to the shape of the clay that covered the coffin’s lid.
There’s a button on the back and “other patterns center on the sawtooth pattern, and it’s a bronze mirror like no other,” the team shared.
Archaeologists discovered a 16 meter long wooden box deep in the mound, which housed the sword and a 60 cm long shield made of a mirror
The mirror weighs 125 pounds, and an X-ray detected tin, copper, and lead. It is also the first ever discovered in a burial mound in Japan
“The surface is smooth and polished and presumably made by a Japanese mirror maker.”
The mirror weighs 125 pounds, and an X-ray detected tin, copper, and lead.
It is also the first ever discovered in a burial mound in Japan.
Within Japanese culture, mirrors are one of the most powerful symbols of power, revered as sacred objects representing the gods.
There is also the belief that mirrors connect our world with the spiritual world.
“(These discoveries) indicate that the technology of the Kofun period goes beyond what had been thought,” Kosaku Okabayashi, the deputy director of the Kashihara Archaeological Institute in Nara Prefecture, told Kyodo News.
. “They are masterpieces of metalworking from that period.”