After recuperating on Sunday and going to the LDS branch here in Gimhae, on Monday we piled into a 12-seater van and headed off to Kyoung-joo which is in the SE in the area of where the Shilla (실라) kingdom used to be.
These photos are from the "supposed" tomb of King Wonsung (원성). As was typical of Korean kings during the late Shilla period, the tomb is guarded by statues depicting military and civil officials (in this case there were 2 military guys and 1 civilian). What was interesting about the warrior guardian was that he doesn't look Korea/Asian. His facial features, head dress, and the money pouch on his belt indicate that this statue was modeled after a Sogdian. Sogdians were Persian expatriates living in central Asia who were known for being big time traders (hence the money pouch). The fact that Sogdians are depicted at this tomb indicates the great trading power of Kyoungjoo in Korea. Dr. Peterson went on to tell us of a Sogdian in Korea who was so powerful, he is said to have been leader of a "thessalocracy" or "sea government" - when there was a power vacuum in Korea over who would be the next king of Kyoungjoo, he went all in to back one of the two major candidates for the throne. After helping to secure the throne for the new king, the Sogdian Jeongbogo (정보고) asked for an alliance with him through marriage to his daughter. Jeongbogo's lack of a suitable bloodline meant that he'd overstepped his bounds with such a request.
Anyways - what I found much more interesting than all of that was the zodiac depicted all around the actual tomb. There are 12 evenly spaced carvings, each one showing a warrior figure sporting the head of one of the 12 animals of the zodiac. In ancient times, Korea had 12 hours in a day and each animal corresponded to one of those hours. The horse - which is my year, or "dee" (띠) - matches the middle of the day/noon. Koreans have two different ways to name the years - you can either say the name of the animal, or use a kind of abbreviation:
Rat = jee (지)
Ox = chuk (축)
Tiger = een (인)
Rabbit = myo (묘)
Dragon = jin (진)
Snake = sah (사)
Horse = oh (오)
Sheep = mi (미)
Monkey = shin (신)
Rooster = yoo (유)
Dog = sul (술)
Pig = hae (해)
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