Gyeongju Royal Tombs

Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla kingdom for nearly a thousand years, from 57 BCE to 935 CE. When Silla unified the Korean peninsula in 668, Gyeongju became the center of a civilization that traded with Tang China, exchanged goods along the Silk Road, and buried its kings beneath enormous earthen mounds in the heart of the city.

The Tumuli

One hundred and fifty-five burial mounds survive in Gyeongju, clustered in parks and rising between modern buildings. The largest are over twenty meters high. The construction method made them difficult to rob: a wooden chamber was built, the body and grave goods placed inside, boulders stacked over the chamber, and earth mounded on top. No entrance passage existed. To reach the contents, a thief would have to dig through meters of packed earth and stone.

The Gold Crowns

Excavation of the Cheonmachong (“Heavenly Horse”) tomb in 1973 revealed a gold crown with branching antler-like projections and jade comma-shaped ornaments called gogok. Five gold crowns have been found in Gyeongju tombs, more than from any other single archaeological site in the world. The crowns are too fragile for daily wear. They were made for the grave.

The Roman Glass

Among the grave goods in several Silla tombs, archaeologists found glass beads and vessels of Roman or Near Eastern origin. A blue glass cup from the fifth century, chemically consistent with Roman glassmaking, was found in the Hwangnamdaechong tomb. It reached Gyeongju through the Silk Road, passing through Central Asia and China. A Korean king was buried with a Roman drinking glass 8,000 kilometers from where it was made.