Gold Waist Belt from Geumgwanchong Tomb

A gwadae is a belt with square metal plates fixed on a textile band, and a yopae is the ornament that hangs from it. People once hung ornaments like jade from their belts along with everyday tools — a small knife, a medicine case, a whetstone, a flint, tweezers — and this seems to have been carried over into official dress. In Baekje and Silla the material, colour and number differed with office and rank, symbolising grade. The Silla gold belt and pendants from Geumgwanchong Tomb at Noseo-dong, Gyeongju, measure 109 cm for the belt and 54.4 cm for the pendants. The belt is made of thirty-nine pure gold plates, with a buckle at each end to join it, and round ornaments hung on the plates with gold wire. Seventeen long pendants hang from it with various ornaments at their ends; they are not of even length, the larger and longer placed at the sides. The piercing and carving of the patterns is extremely fine.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

National Treasure · 국보