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http://dx.doi.org/10.14770/jgsk.2018.54.5.567

Source rock investigation for the Gyeongju Seated Stone Buddha with Square Pedestals in the Blue House using nondestructive petrological analysis  

Lee, Myeong Seong (Conservation Division of National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage)
Yoo, Ji Hyun (Conservation Division of National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage)
Kim, Jiyoung (Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation Sciences, Kongju National University)
Publication Information
Journal of the Geological Society of Korea / v.54, no.5, 2018 , pp. 567-578 More about this Journal
Abstract
A nondestructive petrological investigation was carried out to identify the original location and form of the Gyeongju Seated Stone Buddha with Square Pedestals in the Blue House (so-called Stone Buddha in the Blue House). The Statue is a representative stone Buddha statue of Silla (9th century) but its original location is controversial and some parts were missing. Based on the petrological observation, magnetic susceptibility and gamma spectrometry, its stone material was identified as medium-grained alkali feldspar granite. This kind of granites are widely found in the Namsan, Gyeongju. It is very likely that the Namsan granites are the source of rock of the Stone Buddha. The Yudeoksa (Igeosaji temple site) and Namsan are possible to be the original home of the Buddha Statue since there are petrologically identical alkali feldspar granite outcrop distributed in Namsan and stone heritage made of the same stone type in both places. An investigation on the square middle stone base in the Chuncheon National Museum reveals that it is less likely to be the missing part of the Buddha statue as the stone base is fine- to medium-grained pink feldspar granite and has different magnetic susceptibility from the Buddha statue. This study confirmed the contribution and significance of petrological investigation to identification of stone heritage in Korea.
Keywords
Seated Buddha in the Blue House; alkali feldspar granite; Gyeongju Namsan; magnetic susceptibility; gamma spectrometer;
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