Ancient Tombs in Guam-dong, Daegu

The Ancient Tombs in Guam-dong, Daegu, are laid out on a large scale along the western ridge of Hamjisan Mountain in Buk-gu, Daegu, overlooking the Palgeo Plain. The ridge on which the tombs are distributed branches into several spurs with fairly steep slopes, and there are 360 burial mounds in all. Large tombs sit along the crest of the ridge: across three ridgelines there are 34 tombs 15 to 25 metres in diameter, including seven large tombs of 25 metres or more, while the remaining smaller tombs occupy the slopes. Two excavations were carried out here, in 1975 (Tomb No. 56) and 2015 (Tomb No. 1), revealing a distinctive construction method in two of the tombs, in which a mound of stone was piled up over a vertical stone-lined pit burial chamber. Tomb No. 1, excavated in 2015, shows a 'linked-tomb' method in which several burial chambers were built together: Tomb 1-2 lies to the north-east of Tomb 1-1 and Tomb 1-3 to its south-west, joined to it with the gaps between them filled with piled stone. The burial chamber itself is arranged with a main chamber and an auxiliary chamber placed side by side. The Guam-dong tombs are the graves of the ruling elite of a Silla regional power that grew up around the Palgeo Plain in the 5th and 6th centuries. They display features typical of Silla tombs — mounds filled with stone, linked tombs, and the main-and-auxiliary-chamber structure — while also showing a stone-mounded, stone-chamber construction method not found in other Silla or Gaya tombs, making them highly valuable material for research into the ancient history of the Korean peninsula and into tomb construction.

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Where it is

Region

Buk-gu, Daegu

Designation

Historic Site · 사적