• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.30
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• pp.47-70
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• 2023

In 2019, the first excavation survey was conducted at the Temple Site No. 4 of Yaksugok Vally in Namsan Mountain, Gyeongju to determine the original location of the headless stone Buddha statue and the structure of the temple site. The survey excavated a stone Buddha head that was confirmed in a comparative analysis to be petrologically and mineralogically identical to a headless stone seated Buddha statue found derelict nearby. Traces of gold leaf and black adhesive were found on a portion of the right side of the face of the Buddha head buried in the ground. Since it is exceedingly rare for lacquer and gilding techniques to have been applied to a large stone Buddha statue without a base layer, this study examines the gilding techniques of the time by analyzing the characteristics of the materials used. In this process, the structure of the gold foil was observed through analytical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, and the gold (Au) component was identified. As a result of analyzing the black adhesive using pyrolysis-gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry (pyrolysis-GC/MS), pyrolysis compounds such as hydrocarbons, fatty acids, catechol, and catechol oxidation products were detected. This was identical to the characteristics identified upon analyzing lacquer collected from species of lacquer tree whose main component is urushiol. Therefore, it was confirmed that the stone Buddha head excavated from the Temple Site No. 4 of Yaksugok Valley was separated from a nearby stone seated Buddha statue, and that the gold foil was attached using lacquer sap collected from lacquer trees, which grow in Korea, China, and Japan.