Assuming from the high possibility of large kofun (tumulus) being a tomb of leader (great king) of the time by the chronological order of kofun and others, the following kofun tumulus show there was a sovereignty in this region (present day Sakurai City and Tenri City): Yamato-kofun Tumulus Clusters and Yanagimoto Otsuka Tumulus built at the foot of the Mt. Miwa, in the southeast of Nara basin in the early Kofun period (from about the middle of the third century to the early fourth century), and large scattered kofun with the hill length of 300 meters to 200 meters such as Shibutani Mukoyama-kofun Tumulus (identified as a mausoleum of Emperor Keiko), Hashihaka-kofun Tumulus (surmised by some researchers to be a grave of Himiko), Andonyama-kofun Tumulus (identified as a mausoleum of Emperor Sujin), Mesuriyama-kofun Tumulus, and Nishitonotsuka-kofun Tumulus (identified as the grave of Tashiraka no Himemiko).
古墳の編年などから大型古墳はその時代の盟主（大王）の墳墓である可能性が高いことなどから推測すると、古墳時代の前期（3世紀の中葉から4世紀の初期）に奈良盆地の東南部の三輪山山麓に大和古墳群・柳本大塚が展開し、渋谷向山古墳（景行陵に比定）、箸墓古墳（卑弥呼の墓と推測する研究者もいる）、行燈山古墳（崇神陵に比定）、メスリ山古墳、西殿塚古墳（手白香皇女墓と比定）などの墳丘長が300から200メートルある大古墳が点在し、この地方（現桜井市や天理市）に王権があったことがわかる。