• Bangmulgwan gwa yeongu (The National Museum of Korea Journal)
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• v.1
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• pp.198-233
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• 2024

On April 28, 2021, the bereaved family of the late Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-Hee made a gift of 9,797 items (in 21,693 pieces) from his estate to the National Museum of Korea. Among the donated cultural heritage are 535 mirrors (in 555 pieces), which constitute the largest proportion of the metal art in the donation. This article discusses a group of mirrors from the donated collection dating to the Western Han and Samhan periods - a total of twenty-three mirrors (twenty-two from the Western Han Dynasty and one from the Samhan Period) - that are presumed to have been found together. However, there is no known case of such a large number of Western Han mirrors being discovered together, raising doubts about whether this group should be considered to have been buried all together. Furthermore, the presence of a Samhan mirror among the group suggests that this one at least must have been found together with a Western Han mirror. Additionally, considering that early Samhan mirrors have been found in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula, particularly in the region occupied by Jinhan Confederacy (in present-day Gyeongsangbuk-do Province), it is likely that these mirrors were also excavated somewhere in Jinhan. Also, -18 is a repurposed imitation of a jade eye cover. No similar examples have been found in Korea, China, or Japan, but there are instances of bronze mirrors being used as substitutes for jade burial ornaments that have been identified in China. The repurposing and use of Western Han mirrors as circular ornaments have been observed only in Jinhan in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, indicating that this item was likely used in Jinhan as well. Further research and discoveries are anticipated in the future.