Ancient Tombs in Daeseong-dong, Gimhae

A low ridge between the national museum and the tomb of King Suro, gentle enough to bury on and high enough to be seen from the town. Excavation found the ruling family's graves running from the first century to the fifth: dolmens, pit graves, wooden-chamber graves and stone chambers, the earlier ones on the flat ground around the ridge and the later ones along its top. That sequence is why the site is read as the whole span from the Guya polity of the Samhan period through to Geumgwan Gaya proper. The shift from hollowed-log coffins to assembled plank chambers happens here, around the first century. What came out of the ground says what Gaya lived on: iron armour, iron ingots, pottery — and Chinese mirrors, which put this valley on a trade route running between the mainland and the Japanese islands.

Original Text

Visiting

Visitor information: Korea Tourism Organization · KOGL Type 1

Where it is

Region

Gimhae, Gyeongnam

Designation

Historic Site · 사적