Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain
Alternative name | Rungteousan gobungun |
---|---|
Location | Jilin Province |
Region | Helong |
Coordinates | 42°44′01″N 129°14′39″E / 42.73353°N 129.24413°E |
Type | Cemetery |
Area | 200,000 km2 |
History | |
Builder | King Mun |
Founded | 745 CE |
Periods | 745–926 |
Cultures | Balhae (Bohai) |
Site notes | |
Discovered | 1970s |
Excavation dates | 1980, 1982, 2005 |
Architecture | |
Architectural styles | Stone cist tumuli |
The Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain are the burial sites of twelve royal figures from the Balhae (Bohai) kingdom. It is located on Longtou Mountain, southeast of Toudao Town (头道镇) in Helong, Jilin Province, China, a region possibly called the "Western Field of the Ran Valley" (
History[edit]
Construction on the first tombs at Longtou Mountain began sometime after 745, when King Mun moved the Balhae capital city to Junggyeong.[1] The cemetery was in use until the end of the Balhae Kingdom.
The discovery of Princess Jeonghyo's tombstone resolved speculation amongst scholars that the area was the former location of Hyundeok Province (
The site has been a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level since January 13, 1988. The walls and the murals of the tomb have been covered with anti-corrosive chemicals; at one point the tomb included at least one tower, but it is no longer standing.[2][3]
Excavation[edit]
The first excavations at Longtou Mountain were conducted in 1980 by the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture Museum of Jilin (Chinese:
In 1982, the Yanbian Museum excavated seven tombs in the Dragon Sea area. All seven were clustered quite close together, but the tomb roofs had already collapsed. Some tombs cut through older tombs. Two of these tombs contained two people, who had been interred at the same time; four tombs contained two people, who had been interred one after the other; one tomb contained four people, one of whom was first interred, followed by the other three on a separate occasion. In the cases of a secondary burial, the second person was placed on top of the first body's head or feet.[1]
Layout[edit]
There are three burial zones:[2]
- Dragon Lake (
龍 湖 ) - Dragon Sea (
龍 海 )- The location of Princess Jeonghyo's mausoleum
- One robbed-out tumulus to the south-east. The inner north, east, and west walls were plastered, but the tomb had collapsed by 2012.[1]
- 10 burials distributed over terraces to the east of Princess Jeonghyo's burial
- Stone Kingdom (
石 國 )
Mausoleum of Princess Jeonghyo[edit]
The Mausoleum of Princess Jeonghyo (Chinese: Zhēnxiào Gōngzhǔ mù 贞孝
The mausoleum originally had a funerary pagoda made from brick and stone slabs, in addition to a tumulus.[1] Only the pagoda's foundations remain, which show that it was originally square, measuring 5.50x5.65 m.[5] Below the funerary pagoda and tumulus, the princess' burial comprised an entry passage, tomb entrance, internal passage, and burial chamber. The burial chamber is underground, and was excavated in October 1980.[6] The burial chamber measured 2.10x3.10 m and was built from bricks, with stone slabs forming the roof. The mounds of earth lined with stones demonstrate the continuance of Goguryeo-style tomb[4] but the formal clothing shows Tang style, which implies that Balhae actively accepted the Tang culture.[7] There were originally 12 murals depicting people on the rear walls of the internal passage and north, east, and west walls of the burial chamber. The chamber is surrounded by four murals on each wall, depicting thirteen people in action, such as warriors (3), chamber attendants, musicians, and maids, wearing red, blue, yellow, purple, and brown robes. The murals displayed the image of the Balhae people in its completeness for the first time.
The burial chamber contains a 1.05-metre tall, 0.58-metre width × 0.26-m depth mugui-shaped (
Interments[edit]
The epitaph explains that Princess Jeonghyo (
The epitaph also recorded that the Princess died on Monday, 6 July 792, during the fifty-sixth year of the Daeheung era.[9] She was accompanied in the burial at Ran Valley (
The skeletal remains were scattered all over the chamber when discovered by archaeologists, due to previous looting. However, the looters missed several golden and copper items, jewelry, pottery, and figurines. The gold ornament depicting a three stranded bird's wing is a piece of evidence demonstrating how Balhae was inherited of Goguryeo's crowns.[10] Reconstruction showed that the bones belong to a woman, presumably the princess; but there is also a male, possibly an attendant or child.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f "渤海
国 文物 古 迹之龙头山 古 墓 群 " [Cultural remains of the Balhae Kingdom:the ancient tombs at Longtou Mountain]. Chamgbai Mountain. 16 July 2012. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2017. - ^ a b "Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain – Protected National Cultural Artifacts". Archived from the original on 27 August 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^ "Tomb Group of Longtou Mountain". 5 June 2014. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015.
- ^ a b Lee Injae, Owen Miller, Park Jinhoon, Yi Hyun-hae, 《Korean History in Maps》, Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN 1107098467 p. 65
- ^ Korea Art History Academy, "
美術 史學 硏究 ", 233–236, 2002. p. 59 - ^ Keong-il Kim, "Pioneers of Korean Studies", Joeun Munhwasa, 2004. ISBN 8971055154 p. 459
- ^ Patricia Ebrey, Anne Walthall, "Pre-Modern East Asia:A Cultural, Social and Political History", Cengage Learning, 2013. ISBN 1133606512 p. 65
- ^ Korea Herald, "Korea Now", Vol. 33 1–13, 2004. 32
- ^ Northeast History Foundation, "Journal of Northeast Asian History" Vol. 4, 1–2, p. 92
- ^ Find Challenges China's Claim to Balhae Kingdom The Chosun Ilbo, 2009-08-27, Retrieved in 2015-06-28
External links[edit]
貞 孝 公主 墓碑 (Mausoleum of Princess Zhenxiao) Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, People's Daily, 27–06–2002. Retrieved on 04–02–2007. (Traditional Chinese)