가야고분군 아카이브

초록(영문)

The term "earthenware" egnerally designates all kinds of vessels made of earth and used throughout human history excepting those with any glaze put on the surface. Man's use of the earthenware supposedly dates back to as early as the late Mid-Stone Age about 4000 years ago. The earthenware was one item of the necessities of life that the pre historical men couldn't dispense with. But these vessels were too fragile to endure long use so that they were incessantly broken and new vessels were made again. And accordingly the history of earthenware vessels most manifestly contains the history of the changing aesthetic ideas and feelings of human life. Earthenware craftsmanship achieved the most advanced and refined form and technique during the period of the Three Kingdoms (Shilla Koguryo and Paekje). The period saw the production of a lot of heterogenous vessels inwrought with symbolic patterns Various in kind and form they contained not only the aesthetic quality out of sophisticate ornamental shapes proper to earthenwares but the excellency of technique surpassing all sorts of other vessels. Heterogenous earthenware vessels were mostly used as funerary pottery in the ancient tombs in which is reflected the formative consciousness of the primitive religious folks. They are categorized in terms of the shape as follows. 1. Bird-shaped wares. Made in the form of birds (mainly ducks) these were mostly produced during the Kaya period (42? B C.-562). The bird had a special cult in the animism of the ancient men and they believed that the deal man's soul was carried from this world to the other by the bird as a mediator. It is apparent that those duck-shaped wares were not so much excellent articles of living as ritual articles peculier to the funeral custom of the province. 2. Horse-shaped wares. These ware largely produced during the Kaya and the Old "Shilla (57. B C - 935) periods. The horse which became the frequent mythic subject of many legendary tales and ancient grave frescoes as well as earthenwares also had a special cult of its own in those times. The vessels made in the form of horses were put into the grave so that the buried man could travel to the after world on them. 3. Wagon - shaped wares. Produced during the Kaya and the Old Shilla periods these wares are classified into two kinds the cup-shaped vessels in which wheels are engraved and those inwrought with carriages. The wagon-formed wares had the same meaning as the horse-formed ones -they were made as funerary pottery believed to carry the soul of the deceased person from this to the after world. 4. Ark-shaped wares : The ark-shaped wares are classified into two kinds. The Kaya people made them flat-boat-shaped and the Shilla people added cup stands to them. They are also supposed to have been made as the funerary symbol carrying the dead man's soul across the water. 5. House-shaped wares : These are mostly found in the ancient tombs in the Kaya area. Some have the form of the tropical house built over the water and others are equipped with chimney-shaped cups. They are supposed to have been buried together with the deceased person as a token of prayer for the peace of his soul. 6. Horn-shaped wares : Mostly discovered in the Kaya and the Old Shilla areas these horn-shaped cups must have been entombed as implements of libation. 7. Tortoise-shaped wares. The tortoise was worshiped as a sacred spiritual animal symbolic of longevity by the ancient men. All of these wares were funerary articles of ritual significance. As is shown in the study above the heterogenous earthenwares were produced as incantatory articles for the rite of burial and thus reflect the religious action unique to the primitive men. Their forms are not gorgeous never the less they represent the humble and genuine beauty of ancient Korean people. Therefore it is concluded in this thesis that the modern ceramic art which mainly deals with representative figures and heterogenous forms should develop further this tradition of Korean beauty. In this respect broader and deeper study has been made in the thesis on the heterogenous earthenwares produced during the Kaya and the Old Shilla periods.

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