• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.22
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• pp.41-52
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• 2019

Inner walls of the stone chamber of West Ancient Tomb No. 1 and 2 in Neungsan-ri, Buyeo-gun have been inspected for possible trace of murals. Tomb No.1 has a rough surface finish of the stone wall and no traces of murals was observed in any part of the stone walls except the ceiling part of the main chamber. On the ceiling surface, there is black colored area, which showed same visual characteristics for both the surface and interior upon slight scratch of the surface, suggesting that it may not be a painted layer. In addition, this black material is not artificial stuff like black ink but is confirmed as biotite from X-ray diffraction analysis that is one of the constituents of the stone wall. In case of tomb No. 2, white material, that is confirmed as lime(calcite, CaCO3) by X-ray diffraction analysis, was observed on the wall surface of the east, west and north, suggesting possible existence of murals. The lime layers, however, are located mostly on the entrance of east wall of main chamber and the place of passage whereas they are observed only in lower parts on the other walls. It may have been formed by the inflow of soil and lime from the outside as the form of the lime layer in the east wall corresponds to the traces of soil and lime deposited from the thief pit. Furthermore, the filling material found in the gap between the stone slabs of the four directions and the ceiling was confirmed as clay soil, which is different material from the lime present on the stone wall surface. If the lime layer had been artificially constructed for the purpose of creating murals, it would have been more reasonable to use lime as well in the gap between the stone slabs of the four directions and ceiling. In this regard, we conclude that there are no murals in the Tomb No. 2 in the Neungsan-ri.