Abstract
Glass pieces excavated from Mireuksa Temple dated $7^{th}$ century A.D. were characterized by chemical composition, specific gravity and melting point. Lead isotope ratios of lead glasses were also compared with those of lead ore to attribute which lead ore was delivered for making lead glass. It was known that some lead glasses found in Japan were similar with those of Mireuksa Temple as comparing the data of chemical composition and lead isotope ratios. Characteristics of lead glass from Mireuksa Temple Thirty five glass pieces of Mireuksa Temple were analyzed for five oxides and found that all was lead glass system(PbO-$SiO_2$) with the range of 70~79% for PbO and 20~28% for $SiO_2$. The concentrations of oxides such as $Al_2O_3$, $Fe_2O_3$ and CuO were below 0.4%, 0.3% and 0.9%, respectively. Principal component analysis(PCA) as a statistical method was carried out to classify glasses with the similarities of chemical concentrations. The result of PCA has shown that three groups of glasses were created according to the excavation positions and two major oxides(PbO and $SiO_2$) greatly contributed to the dispersion of glasses on principal component 1(PC1) axis and trace element oxides($Al_2O_3$ and $Fe_2O_3$) for PC2 axis. Most of lead glasses were greenish by the efficacy of iron and copper oxides and some showed yellowish-green. The gravity of lead glasses was about 4.4~5.4 and estimated melting point was near $670^{\circ}C$. Lead isotope ratios of glasses were analyzed and found quite close to a lead ore from the Bupyeong mine in Gyeonggi-do. Comparison with lead glasses found in Japan Lead glasses of Mireuksa Temple were compared with those of Japan on the basis of chemical and physical data. Chemical compositions of Japanese lead glasses dated $7^{th}{\sim}8^{th}$ century A.D. were nearly similar with those of Mireuksa Temple but lead isotope ratios of those were separated into two groups. Three distribution maps of lead ores of Korea, Japan and China with lead isotope ratios were applied for lead glasses found in Japan. The result have shown that the locations of lead glasses from Fukuoka Prefecture coincided with the region of northen part of Korea and similar with those of Mireuksa Temple and lead glasses from Nara Prefecture dated $8^{th}$ century A.D. were located in the region of Japanese lead ore. This research has demonstrated that lead glasses of Mireuksa Temple conveyed to Miyajidake site, Fukuoka Prefecture around $7^{th}$ century A.D. and glass melting pots and glass beads excavated from Nara Prefecture confirmed the first use of Japanese lead ore for production of lead glasses from the end of $7^{th}$ century A.D.