A close-up view of the wooden reservoir at Jangmisanseong Fortress in Chungju, North Chungcheong, on Sept. 1 YONHAP CHUNGJU, North Chungcheong ? Was Seoul always destined to be Korea’s center? A 1,600-year-old wooden reservoir unveiled on Tuesday suggests that power was once concentrated elsewhere on the peninsula. Today, the Namhan River and Dalcheon Stream meet in Chungju, a city in North Chungcheong. Some 1,600 years ago, the land was a prize worth fighting over. Baekje (18 B.C. to A.D. 660) established a foothold there, then surrendered control to Goguryeo (37 B.C. to A.D. 668), followed by Silla (57 B.C. to A.D. 935). The area sat between Hanseong, an earlier name for Seoul, and the inland Gyeongsang region, making it a strategic crossroads for transportation and trade. At 337.5 meters (1,107.3 feet) above sea level, the peak of Mount Jangmi in Chungju offers a commanding view of the Namhan River and the Chungju basin. The mountain’s vantage point may now be a scenic spot for locals and tourists, but it once acted as an important defensive stronghold for the kingdom controlling the region. 오리지날 양귀비 Jangmisanseong Fortress, a roughly 2,940-meter-long structure, stands on the mountaintop. There, archaeologists uncovered a massive 1,600-year-old wooden reservoir and a trove of relics that had survived inside. The reservoir can hold up to 80,000 liters (21,133.8 gallons) of water, enough to meet the needs of 300 people for roughly two and a half months. “This was more than just a defensive fortress,” Lim Jong-deock,?the?director general of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, said. “It was built and operated using technology and organizational resources from Baekje’s central government.” A cooking hearth and artifacts uncovered during excavations at Jangmisanseong Fortress in Chungju, North Chungcheong JUNGWON NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE It is the largest Baekje-era wooden reservoir ever discovered and is believed to have remained in use for about 100 years after it was built in the first half of the fifth century. 상품권릴게임 Each inner wall comprises whole oak and chestnut logs more than 7 meters long (23 feet), shaped and fitted together in nine layers so compactly that it remains virtually watertight. “Can you believe that the wood is 1,600 years old?” said Choi Kwan-ho, a special researcher at the institute who guides visitors around the site. Besides the water facility, archaeologists also unearthed pottery and ironware. Their excavation was part of a five-year project by the Jungwon National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage under the Korea Heritage Service. The artifacts are comparable in quality and archaeological significance to those recovered from the Earthen Fortification in Pungnap-dong, a major Baekje royal site in southern Seoul. A close-up view of the wooden reservoir at Jangmisanseong Fortress in Chungju, North Chungcheong JUNGWON NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE Most strikingly, mud that had accumulated inside the reservoir contained a remarkable array of plant and animal remains and everyday objects from 1,600 years ago. 황금성릴 Researchers identified some 50 species of cultivated and wild plants, including rice, red beans and soybeans, as well as bones belonging to cows, horses, pigs, dogs and pheasants. From the mud, they also recovered a woven carrying basket, a cow nose ring and an iron ax with its wooden handle still intact ? the first such finds from the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C. to A.D. 668) “A similar type of cow nose ring also appears in the murals of Goguryeo’s Anak Tomb No. 3,” researcher Lee Bo-ram said. “Finding an actual example [of the painting] shows that cattle played an important role in transporting supplies to and from the fortress at the time. A cattle nose ring discovered from mud that accumulated inside the wooden reservoir at Jangmisanseong Fortress JUNGWON NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE A woven carrying basket uncovered during excavations at Jangmisanseong Fortress in Chungju, North Chungcheong JUNGWON NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE 손오공릴게임다운로드 The institute is still sifting through 83 tons of mud by hand using water, a painstaking process designed to uncover even the smallest artifacts and organic remains. Researchers have gone through only about a quarter of the mud so far and expect to make additional discoveries. The excavation also confirmed that the earthen ramparts beneath the later-built stone walls of the fortress?were built with Baekje’s distinctive rammed-earth technique, which involves layering soil inside rectangular frames, then?tightly compacting each layer. The technique was commonly used to construct royal fortresses such as the?Earthen Fortification in Pungnap-dong and Mongchontoseong Earthen Fortification in southern Seoul. “Chungju was a center of iron production at the time, which can be compared to the modern era’s semiconductor hub,” Lee said. “Baekje’s use of royal fortress-building techniques at Jangmisanseong shows just how much importance it placed on the site.” Earthen-layered ramparts beneath the later-built stone wall of Jangmisanseong Fortress JUNGWON NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE 꽁머니사이트 Archaeological remains from other kingdoms suggest that Jangmisanseong Fortress was more than a Baekje fortress ? it was a strategic prize that all three kingdoms fought over, another expert said. “This was a strategically important military outpost and transportation crossroads where all three kingdoms vied for control, as evidenced by the Goguryeo monument and Silla tombs discovered nearby,” said Noh Choong-kook, a professor emeritus at Keimyung University and an authority on Baekje history. “I hope further excavations will shed light on how the three kingdoms competed for control of the central region.” The current excavation covers 2,200 square meters (0.54 acres), or about 0.5 percent of Jangmisanseong Fortress’s entire 440,000-square-meter historic site. The institute will display major artifacts from the excavation to the public at its exhibition room in Chungju, North Chungcheong, through Dec. 31. Visitors observe relics discovered inside the 1,600-year-old Baekje-era (18 B.C. to A.D. 660) reservoir at an exhibition hall at the Jungwon National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in Chungju, North Chungcheong, on Sept. 1. YONHAP BY KANG HYE-RAN [] ry. “I hop