Suseongnitoseong Earthen Fortification

This is the site of a bo-ru, a small fortified military outpost built for defensive purposes between the end of Unified Silla and the beginning of Goryeo. Before any formal excavation, the site was believed, on the basis of pottery fragments collected there, to be an earthen fortification of Baekje, but a 2008 excavation revealed its true period and character, after which it came to be called a bo-ru. A bo-ru is a relatively small defensive facility built to garrison troops at a strategic point; scholars use the term for small military installations with a perimeter of under 300m. The site occupies the top of a hill 83m above sea level on the northern bank of the Hangang River. According to the excavation, the bo-ru measures 1,592 square metres at its upper level and 2,870 square metres at its lower level, with a height of about 5m; the perimeter of the upper level reaches 148.6m. No trace of any building was found on the flat surface inside the bo-ru, which was formed by cutting away the top of the hill to create a level area and then banking up the slopes to build a raised, roughly square platform. Most of the excavated artefacts are pottery fragments from the Unified Silla period and pottery and roof-tile fragments from the Goryeo period. Within a radius of 1.5km of this site lie similarly sized and characterised remains such as Ansan Bo-ru and Yeokchon Toseong (earthen fortification). As these sites appear to encircle the Mieum ferry crossing on the Hangang River, this site is judged to have been a military outpost built to protect the river's grain-transport facilities.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Namyangju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물