17 National Treasures’Baekje Black Box’… Excavation of flying in 12 hours

Half a century has passed since the tomb of King Muryeong, the 25th king of Baekje, was excavated in about 1500 years in 1971. Through the excavation of King Muryeong’s tomb, which is simultaneously illuminated as “a monumental event that changed archeology and history in Korea” and “mirror of failure that cannot be repeated”, we look back on the discovery of cultural properties and 50 years of conservation science three times.

“There were a total of 17 national treasures in the tomb of King Muryeong, but there are no cases like this from a single tomb. Jiseok is the first among them. It was a decisive opportunity for the development of archeology and archaeological art history by presenting the absolute years of relics that were not found in any tombs of the Three Kingdoms period.”

The excavation of King Muryeong’s tomb in 1971 was an accidental accident during the construction of a drainage ditch. The photo shows the removal of the dirt at the entrance to the tomb at the beginning of excavation. [사진 국립문화재연구소]

This is the explanation of Professor Jae-yoon Jeong (Historical Department) Gongju University, who publishes a popular history book about King Muryeong in the first half of this year, “The Unfinished Myth. On July 5, 1971, it means that if the tomb bricks were not caught at the end of the drainage construction worker’s blade, Baekje Temple, or the entire Samguksa Temple, might have been dark for a long time. The jiseok referred to here is National Treasure No. 163, which is also called a gravestone or neungseok. It is also called Maeji-kwon because it contains information about buying land and using a grave. In the tomb of King Muryeong, the king’s and queen’s stone stones appeared. It is recorded that he died in the year of Gyemyo (523) along with the name of’Baekje King Sama of the Great General Yeongdong’. The tomb of King Muryeong is the only tomb in the Three Kingdoms era with such a certain year of birth, reign, and death. Jeon-gil Ji, former director of the National Museum of Korea, who took part in the excavation of King Muryeong’s tomb and Cheonmachong (1973), said, “There is also the tomb of King Muyeol in Shilla, but the actual location was not specified or excavated. He emphasized that the only “neung” of the Three Kingdoms era recognized by the archaeological and historical academia is the tomb of King Muryeong.”

Thousands of accessories for crown headgear and gold earrings

Jin Myo-su (an imaginary animal guarding the tomb) found on the path inside the tomb and the stone stone of the king and queen standing side by side. [사진 국립문화재연구소]

The tomb of King Muryeong is also the only tomb of Baekje that was not excavated or stolen during the Japanese colonial period. The ruins of Gongju Baekje were scattered by Japanese Zion Karube (1897-1970), who worked as a Gongju high school teacher during the Japanese colonial period. In 1940, when Karube left the princess, he said, “Investigating more than 1,000 tombs of Baekje.” Choi Byeong-hyun, an emeritus professor at Soongsil University, said, “Silla’s Jeokseok Mokwak (stone-middle-shattered tomb) is difficult for robbers to take away relics without destroying it, whereas Baekje is either a stone-banged tomb or a battlefield (brick tomb). Explained. However, the tomb of King Muryeong, located right next to Songsan-ri No. 6, was miraculously revealed after 1500 years, avoiding these eyes.

Even if it has been completely preserved, the Baekje tombs have relatively few burial items. Nevertheless, thousands of artifacts, including 17 national treasures, were poured into the tomb of King Muryeong. In particular, metal crafts that use thin gold plates freely are outstanding even within the Three Kingdoms. Even if they look alike, the royal crown decoration (coffin decoration) is in the shape of several layers of blazing fire, and the queen’s resembles a lotus flower that is just rising. A total of 5 pairs of gold earrings, 2 gold necklaces, a mirror, silver table cup, and silver bracelet are the essence of Baekjemi. Reveal.

6th century Korea-China-Japan trade and art exchange revealed

Graphic = Designer Jeong Geun-young

In addition, various burial items have important implications for trade exchanges in East Asia at the time. Professor Jeong Jae-yoon explained, “It is possible to reaffirm the status of Baekje in the 6th century through Chinese celadon and coins, tubular materials made of Japanese gold pine, and relics of beads, a raw material in Southeast Asia.” “The first half of the 6th century was an unprecedented period of active exchange between Baekje, Yang Dynasty (China), and Japan,” said Oh-Young Kwon (Korean History Studies). It remains intact in the tomb,” he pointed out. It goes without saying that when the Baekje Historic District, including Songsan-ri tombs, was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, the’globalness of Baekje’s relics’ was actively emphasized. Jang-Yeol Choi, head of the curator of the National Princess Museum, stressed, “The ancient history books 『Three Kingdoms Sagi』 and 『Three Kingdoms』 were mainly written in Silla, and there are very few Baekje ruins.

The excavation of the tomb of King Muryeong, however, coexists with light and darkness. This is because of the’high-speed excavation’ that only took 12 hours from the shooting of the relics inside the tomb to the final recovery. At that time, we had never excavated a large-scale tomb with our own power, and the media, public opinion, and the excavation group could not maintain their coolness in front of the great incident called’The Royal Tombs of Baekje that were not stolen’. It was a speed battle that would be appropriate for the expression “we took it away”. Because of this, many clues of ancient history that would not have been missed if excavated carefully were missing. This is the reason why the tomb of King Muryeong has been regarded as a representative example of’Banmyeon Teacher’ for 50 years. On the other hand, because of such a defeat, the ABC of ruins investigation was established from the excavation of Cheonmachong in Gyeongju two years later. Emeritus Professor Byung-Hyun Choi said, “The reflection on the preservation of relics that were impatient and inadequate at the time could increase interest and investment in conservation science afterwards.” “Review as reflected, but more’secrets of ancient history’ by exploring new perspectives. It’s time to find out.”

Reporter Kang Hye-ran [email protected]