신라 적석목곽분 기원 연구의 방향

Abstract

During the Maripgan period, also known as the Early Silla phase, when the Silla state controlled the region east of the Nakdong River, wooden chamber tombs with stone mounds were constructed in the central burial grounds of the Gyeongju region, the capital of Silla. These wooden chamber tombs with stone mounds comprise two subtypes that appear almost simultaneously: the subtype with an above-ground burial chamber and the subtype with a subterranean burial chamber. They were used as the burials of the royalty and the aristocracy of the Silla center, respectively. Some architectural elements of the wooden chamber tombs with stone mounds, such as the burial chamber structure or the use of wooden panels or the packing of stones (in the case of the subtype with the subterranean burial chamber), can be understood as having been inherited from the wooden chamber tomb embellished with packed stones or packed clay of the Incipient Silla phase. As such, a continuity of traditions can be proposed. However, there are also elements that cannot be regarded as having developed from these earlier types of tombs. They are 1) the complicated internal structure of the early, large-scale, wooden chamber tombs that had burial chambers located above ground; 2) the construction of the enormous ‘high mounds’; 3) the addition of stones on top of the wooden burial chamber structure (in the case of the wooden chamber tomb with a subterranean burial chamber); and 4) the use of a circular earthen mound surrounded by a circle of protective stones. As such, the appearance of stone chamber tombs with stone ‘high mounds’ at the Wolseong North Burial Grounds can be regarded as a phenomenon that appeared abruptly around the mid-4th century, when the Early Silla pottery style came to be established, rather than as the result of a gradual development from the wooden chamber embellished with stone packing of the Incipient Silla phase. Even during the Saroguk phase, Silla established links with the outside world; with its formation as an ancient state, Silla continued to maintain these links, for example sending envoys to China. During the Maripgan period, which witnessed the rapid development of the Silla state, wooden chamber tombs with stone mounds emerged and those used as royal tombs came to be embellished with ‘high mounds’. It may be that this change was generated by foreign influences. The author’s basic understanding of the process by which the Silla wooden chamber tomb with stone mound originated, as outlined above, is admittedly based on assumptions that are not easily proven – this is the same for other theories regarding the origins and lineage of this tomb type. Following the excavation of the Jungsan-ri site, in Ulsan, in the early 1990s, some researchers have come to propose that the wooden chamber tomb with stone mound developed indigenously from the wooden chamber tomb. However, although much effort has come to be invested, this has yet to be proven. In the meantime, interpretations based on distortions or exaggeration of the structure of wooden chamber tombs or wooden chamber tombs with stone mounds have been rife. As such, it can be argued that efforts to prove the proposed theories regarding these tombs must be based on facts, and that a distortion or exaggeration of these facts should be discouraged. A better strategy may be to sit back and wait for the future discovery of new archaeological material.