**Sorcerous Talismans and Goguryeo Place Names Discovered
Evidence of 5th Century Baekje-Goguryeo Border**
In the Daemosanseong site in Yangju City, a wooden tablet from the Baekje period, believed to date back to 439 AD, approximately 1500 years ago, has been unearthed. This discovery predates the previously oldest known wooden tablet by over 100 years and is expected to be the oldest existing written artifact from Baekje.
Yangju City and the Giho Cultural Heritage Research Institute announced on the 20th that they discovered four wooden tablets from the 5th century Baekje during the 15th excavation of Daemosanseong. Notably, one of the tablets is clearly marked with the date “Gimyo year,” which, in conjunction with accompanying Baekje pottery, is estimated to have been created in 439 AD.
This find is over 100 years earlier than the mid-6th century wooden tablet discovered at Mongchontoseong in Seoul. Experts have hailed it as “the oldest existing written Baekje material.”
One of the other wooden tablets features several characters under the word “尸” and includes “Cheon (天)” and “Geum (金).” It is similar in form to Chinese and Japanese talismans and is the earliest known Korean wooden tablet with a spiritual nature. Divination bones, known as “bogol,” were also found, providing evidence of religious activities within the fortress at that time.
Another tablet bears the Goguryeo place name “Geummulno (今勿奴),” an ancient name recorded in the Samguk Sagi for the area around present-day Jincheon, Chungcheongbuk-do. The simultaneous discovery of Baekje pottery and a Goguryeo place name suggests that Yangju was a border region between the two kingdoms in the 5th century.
In the marshy excavation area, a large amount of Baekje pottery, wooden artifacts, and seeds were also found, offering materials for reconstructing the lifestyle of the 5th-century Yangju’s Daemosanseong.
Last year, a wooden tablet from the 10th-century Taebong Kingdom was also discovered at Daemosanseong, confirming its use as a strategic location from the 5th century Baekje to the 10th-century Taebong.
Yangju Mayor Kang Su-hyeon stated, “The findings show that Yangju was a central area for ancient Korean Peninsula exchanges,” and expressed his ambition to establish Yangju as the historical and cultural hub of northern Gyeonggi Province.
Yangju City plans to publicly unveil the four wooden tablets on-site on the 28th.