Table of Contents
Dan, on DeDunking, argues that stone coffins in Japan and Egypt look alike for a cultural reason, not because a chest must look that way to hold a body. The Japanese pieces belong to Empress Suiko and her son. She died in 628. The Jomon, he says, did not invent the form. Later migrants from mainland Asia did. Early versions were hollowed logs built like boats. Stone ones kept knobs for hanging rope, and people read them as boats for a passage through the land of the dead and out the far side. Egypt’s few matches come from the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, when Greeks were present. Greek chests were ornamented boxes. Egyptian belief used a solar bark that crossed the netherworld instead of stopping there. He thinks the ideas mixed, traveled routes that also carried Greek letters toward China, and were polished by Suiko’s wealth and foreign contacts. Chance is absurd to him, but the link is far too late for an ice-age story.
Key points
- DeDunking treats the lookalike coffins as a real Japan and Egypt connection, but a late one, not a relic of a lost age.
- He traces the Japanese form from boat-like log burials in Kofun mounds to the stone chests of Empress Suiko, who died in 628.
- The Jomon, in his account, did not make these chests. Later migrants from mainland Asia did.
- Both cultures, he says, pictured a boat that carries the dead through the netherworld and out the far side.
- He places the Egyptian examples in the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, when Greek box burials and the solar bark could be blended.
- His preferred route is the trade web that also brought Greek writing toward China, later refined by Suiko’s foreign contacts, not independent invention.
Short quotes
these were intended to Ferry the dead not to the underworld but through the underworld on out to the other side
DeDunking, A claimed Japan and Egypt coffin link
Those coffins, he says, were built to carry the dead through the dark and out the far side. Watch at 5:15
the Egyptians believed in a solar bark that was a boat that would carry the deceased through the underworld
DeDunking, A claimed Japan and Egypt coffin link
Egyptians, in his account, pictured a sun boat carrying the dead through that dark passage. Watch at 12:43
she changed Japanese culture quite a bit and one of the things she did was open up massive trade with the mainland of Asia
DeDunking, A claimed Japan and Egypt coffin link
He says this ruler reshaped Japan by opening large-scale trade with continental Asia. Watch at 14:55
Video by DeDunking. Watch on YouTube.