뉴스레터

Mural on the Eastern Wall of the Side Chamber to the East in Anak Tomb No.3

Anak Tomb No. 3 is a mural tomb of Koguryo located in Anak-gun, South Hwanghae Province in North Korea. Estimated to date back to 357 A.D., this tomb was discovered and excavated for investigation in 1949. In particular, the tomb contains mural paintings of high academic value for their vivid depictions of the life of the Koguryo people in various, beautifully portrayed scenes.

The inside of Anak Tomb No. 3 consists of the passageway, the front chamber, the right and left side chambers, and the corridor. The mural shown above is on the Eastern Wall directly facing the entrance of the side chamber to the east.

The mural features three women working at what appears to be a kitchen, one steaming food on a wood-burning stove, another checking on the fire in the furnace, and the third piling up plates on a small dining table. These three neatly-dressed women of Koguryo bustling around in the kitchen might as well have been any contemporary Korean women preparing a meal for a wealthy family.

To the right of the kitchen is a meat storage where dead wild animals like a boar and a roe deer are hung, by which there is a garage with two wagons ready for the tomb's owner and his wife when they go out.

The mural offers a vivid look into the afternoon of an autumn day in the life of the rich the tomb owner.