The remains of a high-caste man wearing armor who was buried by hot
ash — possibly as he tried to calm the wrath of an erupting volcano –
have been found in an area known as the "Pompeii of Japan."
Archaeologists
say they have unearthed the well-preserved body of a sixth-century man
who had apparently turned to face a flow of molten rock as it gushed
through his settlement.
"Under normal circumstances, you would
flee if pyroclastic flows are rushing toward you and bringing waves of
heat. But this person died facing it," said Shinichiro Ohki, of Gunma
Archaeological Research Foundation.
"Maybe, if he were someone of a
high position, he might have been praying, or doing something in the
direction of the volcano and attempting to appease its anger," Ohki told
AFP on Monday.
The remains, along with a part of an infant's
skull, were found in the Kanai Higashiura dig in Gunma prefecture,
roughly 110 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Tokyo, at the site of the
volcanic Mount Haruna.
The find comes from an area known to
enthusiasts as the "Pompeii of Japan" a reference to the Roman city near
modern-day Naples buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.
The
body is clad in a relatively sophisticated kind of armor made by
craftsmen who bound small iron plates with thin leather strips, which
would have represented the latest technological import from the Korean
Peninsula.
It may have been brought to Japan after the practice of
horse riding was introduced in the late fifth century, Ohki said,
adding that the armor was much more sophisticated than the single-plate
type common in the period.
"It indicates the person wearing it
was someone of a high position, like a regional leader," Ohki told AFP,
adding studies would be carried out to see if the man was related to
occupants of ancient tombs dotting the region.
Archaeologists will also examine the bones to determine whether the man and the child were related.
"If possible, we would like to study their DNA. Were they related? Why and how did they die there?" Ohki said.
–by AFP
