Overall Structure of the Tomb

Once inside the exhibition pavilion, move over to your left. You will be able to see inside the tomb through the three exhibition decks. First, let’s look inside the tomb from the first deck.

Each burial chamber of the tomb is constructed by digging the ground in a square shape and stacking stones along the inside. Try and find the biggest chamber in the center of the tomb. That’s where the master of this tomb was buried. There are two more chambers below and next to that chamber, and diverse funerary objects were buried there for the master.

Including the three chambers in the center, there are 32 chambers in this tomb. That’s where people were found to be buried alongside the master. Sunjang refers to a burial custom where people either killed themselves or are killed forcefully along a deceased person to be buried together.

22 skeletons were found buried in this ancient tomb. Some adult men and women were buried together, and a man and child skeleton were found, presumably a father and daughter were buried together as well.

Let’s head to the second deck to see who these people were, and when this custom began in Korea.