뉴스레터

We were cruising down the highway on a cool autumn morning. I hadn't been on a field survey in a very long time. I was in the company of petroglyph specialists who had taken part in the 2010 International Conference on Petroglyphs Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Discovery of Korean Petroglyphs (October 26-27, 2010). I had been on many field surveys since my college years, but rarely does one get to go on one with the top specialists in a given field. Needless to say, I was excited.

The major portion of the itinerary was comprised of surveys of petroglyphs in Ulju and Pohang. Petroglyphs are like time capsules and messages from the past as they reveal the way people lived and thought all the way back to the Bronze Age, which is when people first began etching pictograms into stones. This field survey, in particular, was like a gift set, as we got to see many different images, including those of winged animals, wild beasts, whales, geometric patterns, and humans.

The petroglyphs of animals are generally thought to have been used for education about hunting and animal rearing, while the petrogylphs of geometric patterns are thought to symbolize the sky (circle), earth (quadrilaterals), and constellations (deep holes). The fact is, no one knows for sure why the people of the Bronze Age carved images into stones. The theories concerning the use of the petroglyphs are the outcome of the utilization of accumulated knowledge that we are privy to with the development of civilization as well as philosophy, culture, and ideas that came with it. That is to say, our conjectures about petroglyphs are not so much about the intentions of those who made them but what we think they most closely correspond to in terms of our knowledge of the world.

There were unique petroglyphs we got to survey on this trip. They were the petroglyphs in Cheonjeon-ri, Ulju. The petroglyphs include written texts along with various patterns and designs common to other petroglyphs. While interpretations can vary regarding the images, the written text clearly reveals the intention of the author.

Cheonjeon-ri petroglyphs prove the existence of King Galmun

The written texts found in Cheonjeon-ri are thought to have been etched during the Silla dynasty. There are a few notable portions, one of which is "徙夫知葛文王" [King Subuji Galmun], a part of the text carved in the Year of Eulmi (thought to be 539 CE, the 26th year of the reign of King Beopheung).

King Galmun is known as the younger brother of King Beopheung and the father of King Jinheung. Neither in Samguk Sagi nor Samguk Yusa is there a detailed account of when King Beopheung died and the circumstances surrounding the young King Jinheung's ascension to the throne. It is peculiar that King Jinheung acceded to the throne while his father, King Galmun, was still alive. The rock carving in Cheonjeon-ri is very important because it is the only reference attesting to the fact that King Galmun was alive when his son became the king. Such sources are useful because they fill in the gaps in ancient Korea history about which written records are scarce.

The rock surfaces in Cheonjeon-ri had been used as a kind of a "doodling board" since the Bronze Age, when people etched geometric patterns, and went through series after series of deletions and etchings over a long period of time. This "doodling board" is a channel of communication that delivers vivid "messages" from times immemorial.

The Cheonjeon-ri petroglyphs reveal to us the thoughts, cultures, and lifestyles from the Bronze Age to the Silla period. Whether in images or texts, the petroglyphs contain messages from the authors to their intended addressees and remain as channels of communication. Modern society is divided and split up by family, social class, societies, and generations. It may be worth our while to look to the wisdom of our ancient ancestors to open up channels of communication that can do away with such divisions and segmentation.