Now, let’s take a look at the main topic of the Silla scientific cultural heritage, Silla metalcrafts and metallurgy. Silla developed its system of state on the foundation of iron and advanced its industry and military power on the basis of metallurgy. Especially, after Silla unified the three kingdoms, metal craftsmanship became even more advanced. Ancient Silla had achieved a high level of craftsmanship in jewelry and bronze casting. In particular, their copper skills were famous even in China. A great master of Chinese natural history that carried on the tradition of Chinese herbal medicine, Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty wrote as follows in his famous Compendium of Materia Medica about Silla metal technique; “Persian bronze is suitable for mirrors," "and Silla bronze is suitable for bells.” This shows how well-known Silla bronze was in China. During the so-called Maripgan period in the 5th and 6th century, Silla made splendid gold crowns, an item that required an especially high level of metal craftsmanship. Shown in the first picture is a Silla gold crown. The Maripgan period refers to the years of Saro Chiefdom that started with King Naemul and ended with King Jijeung. Gold crowns and belts that were excavated in the tombs of Silla kings and rulers are extremely splendorous. Silla took in the gold technology of the northern regions and improved it to achieve unique and elaborate metal craftsmanship. As you can see in the picture, Silla gold crowns were ornamented with branch-like shapes and antler-like prongs. This is similar to the crowns worn by Siberian shamans. In addition, craftwork such as Silla crowns and belts looked very similar to metal artifacts of Scythian gold crafts in the Black Sea regions. One of the major Silla bronze artifacts is the bronze Buddha statue of Baengnyulsa Temple in Gyeongju. The statue is shown in the picture to my right. This 1.7-meter-tall statue is the proof of outstanding bronze casting technique. The biggest recorded Buddha statue, which is taller than the statue in the picture, is the one in Hwangnyongsa Temple Unfortunately, the Hwangnyongsa statue was lost in fire, but it was known to weigh about 20 ton and have taken about 3.8 kilograms of gold to paint. A famous temple bell of Silla, the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok is the finest metalcrafts of Silla. The bell was built in 771 and used up 72 ton of brass. It is 3.7 meters in height, 2.227 meters in diameter, 20 centimeters in thickness, and 18.9 ton in weight. It's an enormous bell. How did the Silla people make a bell of such size? The bell was built using the beeswax casting method a unique casting method of Korea. As shown in the pictures, they first made the inner layer and applied on top of that a mixture of beeswax and beef tallow to make the main body of the bell. And again on top of that, they applied soil to finish the outer layer. Afterwards, they heated up the bell to melt away the wax mixture in the middle and poured in melted metal in the gap from the previous step. This is how they casted such a huge bell. This method is known for making smooth surfaces that are good for carving on elegant and elaborate patterns. The ruling tribe that founded Silla was a horse-riding people who brought with them Iron Age technology from the northern regions. Silla began as Saroguk, a statelet that supplied iron to all over Northeast Asia. The northern immigrants that ruled Silla initially called their village "Soebeol." And then the name gradually changed to mean a kingdom of iron and eventually to Silla. In Samguk Yusa, there is a myth that hints on how Yisageum Seok Talhae came to Gyeongju. When Seok Talhae arrived in Gyeongju, he secretly buried a whetstone and charcoal and claimed that the land originally belonged to his ancestors and thereby stole other people’s land. Seok in his name probably meant iron and Talhae blacksmith. It is presumed that Isageum Seok Talhae had three roles simultaneously: the blacksmith, shaman, and ruler. The word Isageum originated from teeth, and possibly because the king had good teeth, from this word later came the word Imgeum (king). During the Isageum period, three families with the last name Park, Seok, and Kim took turns in succeeding to the throne and strengthened the royal authority based on iron technology. In Silla, iron craftsmanship reached a high level and there were dedicated iron production workshops and sites. A major iron production site was in Hwangseong-dong, Gyeongju. This is comparable to today’s POSCO in Pohang. At this location, they had a smelting furnace or blast furnace to melt iron ore. After this was discovered, a smithy hearth that was used to shape cast iron into ironware was also discovered. A smithy hearth was a steel-processing place similar to a rolling plant of modern days. Putting all these together, we can conclude that Silla had quite advanced steel mills. By the way, where did the iron that was used at the Hwangseong steel workshop came from? In Dalcheon, Ulsan, which is close to Gyeongju, a huge iron ore mine was discovered. This location in Dalcheon was a major magnetite mine in Silla. Now there’s an apartment complex, but at that time they mined magnetite from this site. The Silla people smelted magnetite and made various ironware such as iron weapons and agricultural tools. During the Maripgan period that lasted from King Naemul to King Jijeung, numerous iron products were produced. Barding, armor, helmets, swords, axes and other various iron weapons were made. The barding and armor shown on the slide are all housed in the Gyeongju National Museum. In addition, iron farming tools such as sickles and plows became widely used, and this greatly improved agricultural productivity. In Korea, there were huge Buddha statues made of iron. Buddhist statues were generally made of bronze, but we have a number of iron statues as well in Korea. This is because cooper was not abundant in the Korean Peninsula. Therefore people used iron instead. But with iron, it was more difficult to express details precisely. Also, it was less flexible and quite challenging to carve on refined expressions. The Silla people overcame such disadvantages and became capable of building outstanding iron Buddha statues starting in the 8th century. The iron Buddha currently housed in the National Museum of Korea dates back to the 8th century and is considered a masterpiece that overcame the challenges of the material. Shown in the picture is the iron Buddha statue housed in the National Museum of Korea. The one you see now is an iron statue in Silsangsa Temple in Namwon, Jeonbuk from approximately the 8th or 9th century. This statue also shows excellent iron production techniques. As we’ve seen, iron and bronze craftsmanship in Korea was highly advanced.
