조선시대 봉수군의 생활상 고찰

Abstract

On the Korean peninsula, which was often invaded by foreign powers, the system of beacon fires had been operated for a long time. The system of beacon fires, as one of the military communications systems, was established to cope with emergencies by rapidly delivering urgent military news at a border area to nearby areas and the central government using smoke during the daytime and torchlight at night. Previous researches have so far been focused on the operation and structure of the system. However, this study focused on signal-fire soldiers who operated the system, and aimed to identify how they lived based on an examination of the surviving structures they managed and the relics they used. The structures that survive include watch towers, fire stands, and fire places that met the purpose of the establishment of signal-fire stations, which were related to the soldiers' main duties, surveillance and erecting signal-fires. In addition, the relics indicate and reveal various aspects of their lives. The way by which they moved embers from the furnace to fire place can be inferred through plates containing charcoal. Iron arrowheads, among weapons possessed, were the most extensively excavated from signal-fire station sites, indicating that the primary weapon used at fire-signal stations was bows, while a large stockpile of pebbles was the most commonly kept in reserve as defence items to prepare for emergency situations. Excavated hoes and kitchen gardens can be considered as evidence that signalfire soldiers engaged in their own agricultural activities for the purposes of self-sufficiency in addition to the operation of the system of beacon fires. Pots and steamers suggest that they cooked their meals at signal-fire stations. Tableware was the most excavated item among recovered relics, which seems to indicate that a total number of 5 soldiers worked together at a signal-fire stand; soldiers conducting duties at a signal-fire stand on a high mountain used big pottery items or onggi as a food storage container in order to store the necessary food for a relatively long time. The excavation of seashells suggests that they brought shellfish there and ate them as a side dish, helping the soldiers to maintain adequate intake levels of salt in the hot summers.