Mural constellations found in 5C Ara-Gaya(阿羅伽耶) tomb

  • Published : 2019.10.14

Abstract

We report about the constellations discovered in Ara-Gaya Malisan tomb 13 of late 5th century. In December 2018, constellation-shaped grooves were newly found on the ceiling of the tomb 13 of the Ara-Gaya (42-532 CE.) polity in Haman(咸安). The tomb 13 is located at the top/center of the Malisan and is one of the largest burial mounds. Grooves were found in one of the slabs of the grave cover-stone (160 ∗ 80~60cm). The total number of grooves are 134 and each groove has a diameter of 1.5~4.0 cm. The grooves were made by pecking or grinding. From the preliminary study, we identified these grooves with traditional constellations such as 房, 心, 尾, 箕, 斗, which correspond to Scorpius and Sagittarius of modern constellations near the Milky Way. It shows that advanced astronomy also existed in Ara-Gaya tomb while star charts were painted in Goguryeo tombs. This carries great importance in studying the development and exchange of astronomy in the Korean Peninsula.

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