A "tomb of the sea people" in a shoreline rock shelter at Isoma, Tanabe. Outside the world of keyhole mounds, it shows how the people of southern Kii buried their dead — a uniquely Wakayama historic site.
A kofun-period cemetery without a mound: eight small cist-style chambers and five cremation spots set on a terrace inside a sea-cut rock shelter (~23m wide) on Tanabe Bay, holding 13 individuals from c. 480–650. Chamber 1 held a ~50-year-old man with an infant. Antler-fitted swords, antler fishhooks, harpoons, and whistling arrowheads mark a chiefly family of fisherfolk — a key point of contact between Kinai chamber burial and Kumano's shelter-and-dune tradition.
Imperial Household Agency view
Not designated by the IHA. National Historic Site (1979); the finds became Important Cultural Properties in 1988.
Field notes
The shelter can be viewed on the shore; finds are shown at the Tanabe City Museum of History and Folklore.