Geophysical surveys over and inside the Tobiotsuka Kofun – Okayama prefecture

Burial mounds are artificially (or partially artificially) erected hills that cover a monumental tomb, usually in the form of a stone chamber. Different types of burial mounds are distributed worldwide and have built in different archaeologically interesting periods. Use of non destructive geophysical surveys for their study offer the opportunity to image their internal structure and evidence peculiar anomalies that can be later investigated with archaeological excavations, limiting invasiveness. The main innovative part of this work lies on the combined use of Ground Penetrating Radar and Electric Resitivity Tomography over and inside an unexplored burial site in Japan, the Tobiotsuka Kofun, a late Kofun period burial mound, dated approximately late 6th-early 7th century CE and located in the Okayama Prefecture. Effectiveness of the geophysical surveys is demonstrated by the correct imaging of known structures and by the combined evidence of the mound organization, which allowed to draw a reliable initial archaeological interpretation with evidence of several interesting excavation spots. The adopted methodological surveying approach was verified as a valuable choice for investigations in similar archaeological settings.