Abstract
Several remains have been found from the Yayoi to Kofun periods that used more than 10 kg vermilion. Initially it was thought that vermilion was imported from China together with the funeral ceremony. However, it might be a display of power to use a large amount of vermilion for the remains in the funeral ceremony. Vermilion is refined from cinnabar ore and there are many cinnabar mines in Japan and China. However, as it is clear from ancient documents and surviving remains that some mines collected cinnabar ore from ancient times, we selected five cinnabar mines in Japan and China where cinnabar ore was probably collected in ancient times. When the sulfur isotope ratio of cinnabar ore was measured, it was observed that the ratio differed between Japanese and Chinese mines. From these previous studies, the sulfur isotope ratio of vermilion collected from remains in northern Kyushu from the mid-Yayoi to early Kofun periods was measured and vermilion showing a positive value similar to Chinese cinnabar ore was observed in several remains. Furthermore, several remains were surrounded by vermilion refined from Japanese ore. From these results, it is thought that measuring the sulfur isotope ratio of vermilion is a useful analytical method to identify the original mine of vermilion used in remains, but a weak point is that vermilion can be collected from only one or few points in a burial mound. More reliable information might be obtained if we collected vermilion from many collection points in a burial mound.
