Jinmyosu, the Guardians who Protected the Royal Tomb of King Muryeong

[Narration]
The interesting objects that you see through the glass are stone animal figurines excavated from the Royal Tomb of King Muryeong. Don’t they look like pigs with horns? Why were these interesting stone figurines in the Royal Tomb of King Muryeong? We will listen here to what the head of the excavation team had to say about the discovery of the tomb in 1971.

[Excavation head]
It was the afternoon of July 8, 1971. The entrance of the tomb was uncovered around 3 p.m. We first prepared some food to hold a memorial service for the occupants of the tomb. We then started to remove the bricks from the entrance. Once the bricks were removed, we could see a dark, long, narrow passage. We entered the passage and as we walked in we saw two stone tomb steles and an animal figurine glaring at us.

[Narration]
This animal figurine is prevalent in mythology, and its purpose is to protect the tomb from both intruders and evil spirits. The animal figurines had protected the tomb for all those years.

The figurines also played another role. If you look carefully, you will see that there are horns on their heads and that their feet are winged. It is believed that these figurines had wings so that they could escort both the king and queen safely to the mountain in heaven for the dead. Maybe they were similar to Hermes in Greek myths. Next, we will take a look at the stone tomb steles.