The goal of the study is to observe the transitions of tomb style of Koryo Dynasty by analyzing their structure having found around the Chungbuk province that includes Cheongju and Chungju. For analytical purposes, after dividing the tomb remains into...
The goal of the study is to observe the transitions of tomb style of Koryo Dynasty by analyzing their structure having found around the Chungbuk province that includes Cheongju and Chungju. For analytical purposes, after dividing the tomb remains into three according to the region, we will then set the period through seriation method after form classification based on the porcelain, earthenware, and metal artifact, which enable us to figure out chronology. Based on such analysis, we analyze the structural characteristics of stone lined tomb and pit tomb belong to each sub-periods from the 1st and the 3rd. Lastly, the transitional process and characteristic of grave good for the stone lined tombs and pit tombs were analyzed.
The result of analysis reveals that the 1st period start from the 10th century and stone lined tomb prevail. The grave goods include porcelain, like haemuri gup-wan (bowl with a halo shape), plate and flat-bottle. There are a few pit tombs found from this period. The 2nd period starts from the 11th century, during which the number of both stone lined tombs and pit tombs increases and the structural change occurs in niche and yogaeng (the structure formed by inserting artifacts or broken stone under the small hall made on the floor of pit tombs). Various types of porcelain like bowl, plate, and bottle accompanied with many metal artifacts are found in those tombs. Although there are no differences between the quality of the artifacts found from the two forms of tombs, pit tombs contain more grave goods. From the start of the 3rd period, beginning from the 13th century, the number of both types of the tombs rapidly decreases. Stone lined tombs continue to be simplified, to decline and ultimately disappear. On the other hand, pit tomb continues to exist and its tradition remains through Chosun dynasty to the present. The abundance and variety of the grave goods decrease compared to the former period, and more goods are found in pit tombs than in stone lined tombs.
The origin of the stone lined tomb of Koryo Dynasty found in Chungbuk province is found in Yong-am Historic Preservation in Cheongju, where all the constructional modes of stone lined tombs of the dynasty has been confirmed. However, in case of the pit tomb, it is hard to follow the origin since no pit tomb of the previous period has been found, although it is known to be built from the prehistoric era.
So far, through the analysis of the old tombs built in Chungbuk province during Koryo dynasty, we have been followed the transitional process in which the stone lined tomb prevailed in the 1st period was gradually replaced by pit tomb and ultimately disappears. We expect more study results to provide further information about the structure of graves of Koryo Dynasty from Chungbuk province.