Remnants of Baekje's Ungjin period unearthed
A state-run research center found remnants of artifacts from Baekje Kingdom's Ungjin period (475-538 CE), the Korea Heritage Service said Tuesday, offering a rare glimpse into how the empire engaged in diplomacy and trade even during political instability.
"Baekje was the earliest of the three kingdoms (Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla) that rose to power and was successful. But we had difficulties in tracing the empire's golden age due to a lack of historical documents and artifacts left, often leaving us unclear about what Baekje was really like back then," Choi Eung-cheon, who heads the KHS, told reporters Tuesday during a press conference held at Korea House in central Seoul.
"But the new finding will help us uncover and better understand Baekje's story," Choi noted.
The Three Kingdoms of Korea were rival states that coexisted on the Korean Peninsula and parts of Manchuria from roughly the 1st century BC to the 7th century AD.
Baekje's Ungjin era began when the kingdom moved its capital to Ungjin, now Gongju in South Chungcheong Province, after the fall of Hanseong and the death of King Gaero at the hands of Goguryeo forces under King Jangsu. The fall of the capital and the king's death plunged Baekje into deep turmoil, which continued to trouble the kingdom long after the capital was moved.
Amid political instability, artifacts such as delicate gold earrings adorned with blue glass beads are a mixture of styles between earrings from Baekje's early Hanseong period and those worn by the queen during the later Ungjin period, indicating that the empire had advanced goldworking skills during that time, according to KHS.
The research also found a silver ring with gold plating resembling those from Silla tombs, suggesting that Baekje's Ungjin period had close ties with Silla. A sword handle with a pentagonal silver decoration, also found in Naju and Nonsan, is believed to have been a gift from the Baekje royal family to local leaders.
In addition, some 1,000 unearthed pieces of glass beads point out that Baekje had active trade links. The discovery found that the yellow and green beads were made with lead from Thailand, as the research found that they were the same material found in beads from King Muryeong's tomb.
The KHS explained that this indicates that Baekje had diplomatic links with distant Southeast Asian countries at that time.
The discovery was conducted by the Buyeo National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage — an affiliate of the KHS — as part of a long-term study of the royal tombs and the tomb of King Muryeong of Baekje in Gongju from September 2023.
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