• Bangmulgwan gwa yeongu (The National Museum of Korea Journal)
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• v.1
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• pp.150-173
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• 2024

The Gyeongsang region experienced an epoch-making social transformation approximately around the second to first century BCE, including the replacement of Bronze Age types of tombs (such as dolmens, stone cist tombs, and earthen tombs with flat capstones) with clusters of wooden coffin tombs and the emergence of wajil pottery (soft stoneware) and ironware. These shifts in the archaeological material evidence have been discussed in the context of the formation of the states that comprised the three Han confederacies and in relation to wooden coffin tombs built in later periods. This paper explicates the appearance of clustered wooden coffin tombs with accompanying ironware by categorizing them. In particular, it examines the emergence of wooden coffin tombs by creating the Wolseong-dong type, which differs from Tomb No. 5 in Joyang-dong and Tomb No. 1 in Daho-ri with their deep burial pits and large quantities of prestige goods and soft stoneware items. The Wolseong-dong type of tomb commonly features ironware, including flat-bladed iron axes, oblong cast iron axes, iron wire, iron chisels, and iron swords; a small slender, rectangular wooden coffin tomb with a shallow burial pit of less than sixty centimeters; and pottery of a type preceding soft stoneware, such as long-necked jars, triangular attached-rim pottery bowls and pots, and mounted vessels. There are also a few bronzeware items found in them, but no prestige goods. This study scrutinizes tombs in Tamni-ri in Uiseong, Hagu-ri in Gyeongju, and Hakjeongdong in Daegu by comparing them with the Wolseong-dong type, and it confirms that in Sinseodong in Daegu, Wolseong-dong type tombs and later Joyang-dong type tombs have separate spatial distributions within the site. This also indicates that the Wolseong-dong type is a valid categorization among wooden coffin tombs. Although the rise of the Wolseong-dong type tomb is associated with the migration of a group, I reserve judgement on whether its origins should be understood in the context of the iron culture in the southwestern region of South Korea that was sparked by King Jun's advance to the south or if they lie in the western region of North Korea. Either way, the Wolseong-dong type is thought to be the tombs of a group of people with lower hierarchical status than the occupants of the later Joyang-dong type.