A bronze dish bearing a Silla local official’s name unearthed

A bronze dish with the name of a governor of a province of the Silla Dynasty has been discovered at the site of Hwangryong Temple in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.

“The Silla Cultural Heritage Institute discovered a well, which had presumably been abandoned at the end of the unified Silla at an excavation site outside the southern wall of Hwangryong Temple,” the Cultural Heritage Administration said on Thursday. “We excavated a bronze dish and earthenware bearing “Governor Dal On Shim,” a piece of a Chinese porcelain, a plain roof tile, a bronze knife and husks in the well.”

Experts say that Dal On Shim is likely to be the name of a person or a region. It is for the first time that an artifact bearing the name of a governor of the Silla Dynasty was found. “A person or a region with a similar name has not yet been found in old history books including the Chronicles of Three States,” a source from the administration said.

Built in 553, Hwangryong Temple was the largest national temple of the Silla Dynasty. Attention is being paid to the newly discovered well and the use for the bronze dish. The excavation team presumes that the well would have been part of the temple although it was located outside its wall.

김상운 기자sukim@donga.com