New report on excavation of Tomb of King Muryeong published

“During the exaction of Cheonmachong in 1973, it brought home to me how shoddily it was done to uncover the Tomb of King Muryeong two years earlier.”

“Researchers were all flabbergasted when they tumbled onto a tomb that remained intact,” said Ji Geon-gil (pictured), former president of Gongju National Museum, recounting the stories behind the Tomb of King Muryeong. In fact, thousands of artifacts were collected from the tomb in merely two days, and this gave them a lesson when they were digging out the Cheonmachong tumulus two years later along with a more systematic investigation. The excavation of Cheonmachong, one of the first state-run excavation projects in the 70s, took about a year to finish. “It would’ve taken as much time for the Tomb of King Muryeong if our work had been as much thorough,” Mr. Ji explains.

According to the excavation report, the Tomb of King Muryeong was uncovered by accident during a drainage construction at 10:30 a.m. on July 5, 1971, in Gobun County, Gongju. Excavation began two days later, on the morning of July 7, and they started recollecting artifacts from the tomb at 10 p.m. When all work was over, it was at 9 a.m. on July 9, merely two days after the digging had begun. For some of the artifacts, it is impossible to locate their original position, making it difficult to identify their origin, with the myriads of gilt ornaments from the bottom of the tomb being a prime example.

Back then, Mr. Ji was 28-year-old academic researcher from the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage. Prof. Kim Won-ryong, the then leader of the excavation team and a former president of the National Museum, was his archaeology professor at Seoul National University. “I thought something was wrong, but it was difficult to give him advice to slow down as he was the untouchable professor,” Mr. Ji recalls.

The interpretation over the success of Muryeong’s excavation is still ongoing, with scientific analysis on the old artifacts shedding light on new insights. “We’ve been looking into this closely since 2001, and thanks to such effort, we’ve recently published a new report. It is much rewarding that we can make up for some of the shortcomings from the initial work,” Ji said. As to the controversy over the hasty excavation effort in Wolseong, Gyeongju, several years back, he stressed the need to adopt institution to allow academic excavations to be executed more systematically.

The interpretation over the success of Muryeong’s excavation is still ongoing, with scientific analysis on the old artifacts shedding light on new insights. “We’ve been looking into this closely since 2001, and thanks to such effort, we’ve recently published a new report. It is much rewarding that we can make up for some of the shortcomings from the initial work,” Ji said. As to the controversy over the hasty excavation effort in Wolseong, Gyeongju, several years back, he stressed the need to adopt institution to allow academic excavations to be executed more systematically.


sukim@donga.com