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Culture5th century

Hwangnam Daechong, Gyeongju

Silla’s largest tomb, a double stone-mound wooden-chamber tomb. The northern mound held a gold crown, the southern one glass vessels from the West.

Hwangnam Daechong in Daereungwon, Gyeongju — Silla’s largest tomb, two mounds joined together
Hwangnam Daechong in Daereungwon, Gyeongju — Silla’s largest tomb, two mounds joined together

Bernard Gagnon · CC0 · Source

Tomb No. 98 in Daereungwon, Gyeongju, it runs 120 m north to south — the largest tomb of Silla. The southern mound was built first and the northern one joined to it, giving a gourd shape. A man (the king) lay in the south mound and a woman in the north; a gold crown and a belt ornament inscribed "Lady’s belt" mark the north mound as a queen’s tomb. It dates from the maripgan period, with Naemul or Nulji among the candidates.

As a stone-mound wooden-chamber tomb it was hard to rob, and tens of thousands of objects — gold crown and belts, a phoenix-head glass ewer — survived. The glassware shows contact with the Mediterranean and West Asia.

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States and rulers at the time
Silla — Nulji Maripgan

Before and after

Earlier
AD 450 Hunting Scene, Muyongchong Tomb
Later
AD 475 Fall of Hanseong and Move to Ungjin

Themes that include this event

  • Changes in Tombs2000 BC – 1374

    From dolmens to the tomb of King Gongmin — stone-mound, stone-mound wooden-chamber, stone-chamber and brick tombs, and how burial changed by kingdom and age

  • Gyeongju57 BC – 1860

    Silla’s capital for a thousand years — tombs, pagodas, temples and bells from every age of Silla, and the birthplace of Donghak