“The Northern Dipper and the Southern Dipper constellations in Koguryŏ elite tombs in northeast Asia”

Abstract

The burial sites of the elite during the Koguryŏ kingdom (37 BC–AD 668) constitute a unique collection of 126 painted tombs, previously unseen in northeast Asia that are distributed near the sites of the Koguryŏ capitals in northeast China (Jilin and Liaoning provinces) and in the Pyongyang, Nampo and Hwanghae regions in North Korea. A major hindrance in the study and analysis of the Koguryŏ painted tombs is the lack of a reliable chronological framework. These tombs have not been identified and securely dated apart from two tombs that do carry inscriptions revealing the identity of the occupant. This study focuses on the images of the Northern Dipper and the Southern Dipper constellations which are conspicuously depicted on a larger scale on the tombs’ ceiling. It compared two groups of tombs, the ones that feature the Northern Dipper constellation alone and those which have paired Northern and Southern Dipper constellations, and it inquired whether this difference has implications for the chronology of the tombs. This new study demonstrates that one mode of representation seems to have preceded the second group of tombs.