Newly Discovered Relics

[Anchor Lead]

The ancient folk song "Gugija" is known to be about the founding of the Gaya confederacy, an ancient kingdom on the Korean Peninsula. Relics that are presumed to be depicted in the song have been found recently in one of the Gaya tombs in Goryeong, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province.

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This stone tomb presumably dates back to the Great Gaya period of the late 5th century. Some interesting relics have been recently found in the tomb measuring 1.6 meters long and 0.4 meters wide. They are earthen bell rattles. When viewed through a microscope, some of the rattles were found to have patterns reminiscent of a turtle shell. The discovery reminds scholars of the turtles mentioned in the ancient folk song "Gugija" about the founding of the Gaya confederacy. Other engravings on the bell rattles include a picture of a man wearing a crown and a sack containing golden eggs. Legend has it that the Gaya confederacy was founded when six kings were born from the golden eggs.

[Soundbite] Bae Sung-hyuk(Daedong Cultural Property Research Center) : "We have found that the relics have something to do with the historic events described in ‘Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms’ and ‘Record of the State of Garak’, such as the one about the gold sack."

The excavators of the relics say it's the first discovery of cultural assets related to the Gaya legend. But it's still unknown who the tomb belongs to and if the patterns on the excavated relics are identical with the objects mentioned in the Gaya legend.