新沢千塚古墳群（にいざわせんづかこふんぐん） Niizawa Senzuka tumulus cluster

初詣帰りに、新沢千塚古墳群（にいざわせんづかこふんぐん）で散歩してきました。奈良県橿原市と大和高田市にまたがる、日本有数の大規模な古墳群です。公園として整備され、カフェやショップなどの施設もありました。古墳群の築造時期は主に４世紀後半から６世紀初頭（古墳時代前期〜後期）とされ、確認されている古墳の数は６００基以上に及びます。被葬者はヤマト王権と深く関わる有力豪族と考えられています。古墳の形は円墳が中心ですが、前方後円墳や方墳もありました。鉄製武器、馬具、装身具、土器などが出土され、遺物の多くは、近隣の橿原考古学研究所附属博物館などで展示されています。馬具類は日本最古級とされ、騎馬文化の伝来を示す重要な証拠とされています。この古墳群は小さい古墳が集中して集まっていました。２０２５年に訪問した福岡県の新原·奴山古墳群や、明日香村の古墳群よりも、数多くの古墳がありました。２０１９年に世界文化遺産に登録された「百舌鳥・古市古墳群 ― 古代日本の墳墓群 ―」には含まれていません。また残念ながら、世界遺産登録を目指す「飛鳥・藤原の宮都とその関連資産群」の構成資産としても候補となっていないそうです。

On my way back from a New Year’s shrine visit, I took a walk through the Niizawa-Senzuka Kofun Group. It is one of the largest clusters of burial mounds in Japan, stretching across Kashihara City and Yamato-Takada City in Nara Prefecture. The area has been developed as a park, and there are facilities such as a café and shops.The kofun were mainly constructed from the late 4th century to the early 6th century, spanning the early to late Kofun period, and more than 600 burial mounds have been identified. The people buried there are believed to have been powerful clans closely connected to the Yamato polity.Most of the mounds are round kofun, but there are also keyhole-shaped and square ones. Many artifacts have been excavated, including iron weapons, horse trappings, ornaments, and pottery. A large number of these items are displayed at nearby museums such as the Kashihara Archaeological Institute Museum. The horse trappings are considered among the oldest in Japan and are important evidence for the introduction of horse-riding culture.This kofun group is characterized by a dense concentration of relatively small burial mounds. Compared with the Shinhara–Nuyama Kofun Group in Fukuoka Prefecture, which I visited in 2025, and the kofun clusters in Asuka Village, there were noticeably more mounds here.The site is not included in the “Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan,” which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 2019. Unfortunately, it is also not a candidate component of the proposed World Heritage property “Asuka-Fujihara: Archaeological Sites of Japan’s Ancient Capitals.”

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