신라 옹관묘의 축조와 의례적 성격

Abstract

Previous research on the jar coffin tomb was mostly about the child’s social status or personality or the structure and arrangement of the jar coffin tomb but hardly dealt with the burial custom to entomb the body into the earthenware. This study is intended to examine several burial rituals performed in the jar coffin tomb, one of the characteristic burial customs. The elements of burial rituals in the jar coffin tomb can be understood with the direction of the buried person’s head, the kinds and characteristics of grave goods and the position of them, or the arrangement of the jar coffin tomb, and putting them together, this author has studied it multilaterally. The types of arrangement of the jar coffin tomb can be categorized into 독립묘(獨立 墓, independent jar tomb), 부곽식(副槨式, attached jar tomb), and 배장묘식(陪葬式, subordinate jar tomb), and this researcher has reexamined the types of arrangement and grave goods according to the types. Up until now, as the jar coffin tomb has the structure affiliated with the main chamber they have regarded that the buried person in the jar coffin tomb should have blood ties with the one buried in the main chamber or be buried by 殉葬(burial of the living with the dead); however, examining the characteristics of the jar coffin tomb by types, this author has estimated various burial features of the jar coffin tomb. First of all, it is reasonable to presume that the jar coffin tomb of the 獨立墓 type was the myoje for children high in rank; meanwhile, about the jar coffin tomb of the 副槨式 or 陪葬式, we can admit that part of it is similar to the service goods used in the 墓祭(a memorial service held before the grave) carried out after building the ancient tomb completely, and we can also assume that some of them were relics associated with grave construction ritual performed in the process of building the feudal territory. Moreover, though this does not apply to every case, we can assume that the jar coffin tomb previously referred to as the 副槨式 was built for the a box for burial objects intended to present all sorts of ritual goods used in the process of building the main chamber. The ground of this can be found from the aspects of destruction and types of relics excavated from inside. Lastly, although restoring the process of building the jar coffin tomb is not the example applying to all kinds of jar coffin tomb, with the structure of the stone outer jar coffin tomb and position of grave goods, we can examine the process of constructing the jar coffin tomb and the aspects of ritual about different parts of it approximately.