On the Construction Date of the Koguryo Tombs Found in The Anak Palace Site

The Anak Palace build in 427 is very important in a case of study of history and culture of Koguryo, a powerful country in the East in the Middle Ages. An important issue is how to interpret the structure and to date the earth-covered Koguryo stone graves found in the lower layer in the Palace. The date of several graves found during the overall excavation of the site is directly related to the term of existence of Palace, and, furthermore, its construction date. Breif description of the burials:
Tomb No. 1 (Anak Palace) found in the lower cultural layer is a single-room grave. It has a feature of early Koguryo tombs such as the wall sides are slightly inclined toward inside, which makes it one of the earliest example of the single-room tombs. It is prior to the Tomb No, 1 368 in Wanbaoding, Jian in terms of structure so its constructed can be roughly dated back to 2nd century without going beyond the mid-3rd century.
Tomb No. 2 (Anak Palace) is a single-room grave, the grave route follows in the middle of the south wall. What’s remarkable is the inner plane structure of Tomb No. 1 445 in Masiengou, Jian. It has two graves whose route was totally inclined and another grave with the route in the centre. Thus, they are closely related to each other both in terms of structure and date, and should had been built one after another. Tomb No. 2 of Anak Palace is dated about the early 4th century.
Tomb No. 3 (Anak Palace) is a double-room grave with two burials. The routes were totally inclined toward one side. Tomb No. 3 is similar to Tomb No. 1 in terms of construction date, which means they were built in the late 3rd century.
In conclusion, Tombs No.1, 2, 3 of Anak Palace were built and commonly used from mid-3rd century to the 4th century. Their construction date is before the 4th century.
Keywords: tomb, grave, burial, dating, Koguryu, Anak Palace, construction.

The article in Korean.