Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
History is filled with examples of retainers being killed and buried with their masters, but a newly discovered tomb in South Korea indicates that the country was an early practitioner of gender equality, as a male was sacrificed to be entombed with a noblewoman.
The burial ground, discovered by researchers at the Cultural Heritage Administration in South Korea and the topic of a Friday Discovery News report, was found near the city of Gyeongju on the southeastern coast of South Korea and dates back to the fifth or sixth century.
A noblewoman from an ancient kingdom
These were not star-crossed, ill-fated lovers, the website explains. The man was clearly a human sacrifice who was murdered so that he could be buried along with the woman – who based on the teeth and leg bones found at the scene, would have been in her thirties.
The two of them were found in a tomb constructed out of soil and stone in Gyeongju, which was the capital city of the ancient kingdom of Silla. Silla came in to existence in 57 BC and lasted for nearly an entire millennium, until 935 AD. Over that time, it produced 56 monarchs, “intricately crafted gold ornaments, and beautiful Buddhist temples,” according to Discovery News.
“She wore a belt which appears to be decorated with gold earrings and gold leaf,” officials at the Cultural Heritage Administration said in a statement. She had also been buried with a necklace made from beads and jade green jewels, and records from the Silla dynasty indicate that she was most likely a noblewoman who was skilled on horseback and could use weapons.
Evidence that the man was a human sacrifice
The position of the man’s teeth and bones indicate that the man, who may have been younger than the woman, lay in a parallel position with his head next to hers. Since no accessories that belonged to him were found, and given the fact that females were viewed highly in the Silla kingdom, experts believe he was a human sacrifice.
“This is not the first case where a male sacrifice is buried in a female’s tomb,” Kim Kwon-il, a researcher with the Foundation of Silla Cultural Heritage Research, told Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily on Friday. “However, male sacrifices were often buried in the room where the artifacts were, as guards, so to speak, for the dead.”
“The man could have been a servant, body guard, or lover,” Lee Han-sang, professor at Daejeon University, an expert in Silla history, told South Korea’s The Chosun Ilbo. He added that the find showed “an unknown type of burial of the living with the dead in the Silla period.”
A sword, pottery and horse riding equipment, all believed to belong to the woman, were also found in a separate room within the tomb. A total of two-dozen tombs have already been found at the site, and excavation will continue there until the end of the month.
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