Ishibutai Mounded Tomb

This guide to the Ishibutai Mounded Tomb near Nara opens with archaeologist Kosaku Hamada in nineteen thirty-three, brushing dirt off a granite roof stone too heavy for the tools of his day, and confirming that the tomb's earthen mound had long since been stripped away. It follows the real puzzle that dig raised: two of the roof stones weigh dozens of tons apiece, hauled from a mountain three kilometers off with no crane and no wheel. You'll also hear the historians' case for whose tomb this actually is, and the darker rumor about why its covering earth vanished in the first place.