UNSRC Korean Cultural Society

JoongAng Daily

	Black pork from Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang, is known for its exceptional flavor and texture. Provided by Korea Tourism Organization

In Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang, barbecue is not chicken, burgers, hot dogs or even ribs. Barbecue is pork, from black pigs, and it is often grilled on a briquette fire, while it crisps and crackles most pleasingly in the skillet right in front of your eyes.

If that sentence makes your mouth water, well, you’d better hope that you can catch the next thing moving to the city of Gimcheon, where black pork, or heuk dwaegi, is plentiful and the barbecue is always ready to go.

These days, there are not many places in Korea where black pigs are raised, but before the 1950s the animals were raised in cities around the country and it was customary to serve black pork to guests.

Black pigs are native to Korea and are known to have first been raised in northern China during the Goguryeo Dynasty (37 B.C.-668).

The pigs began disappearing in the late 1950s with the influx of foreigners into Korea. The new crop of foreign visitors brought with them white Yorkshire pigs, which were three times larger than their darker cousins and soon became the pig of choice for a country more focused on volume than on tradition. Farmers nationwide rushed to start raising the Yorkshire pigs and black pigs grew scarce.

Gimcheon, however, fought hard to hold on to its black pigs. The city was originally famous as a receiving and distribution center for the animals.

Gimcheon black pigs are renowned for their high quality, because they drink clean underground water rich in iron and breathe fresh country air all year round. They are small in size, but there’s a gulf between the taste of the pigs produced here and those raised elsewhere. It is said that even if newborn pigs from other cities are transported to and raised in Gimcheon, they still have a different taste from those born and raised in the area.

Gimcheon residents have launched a project to support black pig farmers and prevent the black pigs from becoming endangered, and more than 10 farms in the city now raise 2,000 to 3,000 black pigs each. In addition, the city has as many as 12 black pig restaurants.

At the restaurants, the thick juicy pork is often roasted on the table as you eat. The pork contains proteins, unsaturated fatty acids and is low in trans fat and calories. Compare that to the scrappy slices of samgyeopsal, pork that is similar in appearance to thick slices of bacon, one customarily encounters. Black pork is also chewier and more textured than other kinds of pork.

Give it a try the next time you’re in Gimcheon. If you live in Seoul, you’ll have to make the 240-kilometer (149-mile) drive to get it, but once you do, you’re likely to join the thousands of visitors who return to the city every year for just one more taste.

*For more information, visit www.visitkorea.or.kr. Information provided by Korea Tourism Organization

By Yim Seung-hye Contributing writer [estyle@joongang.co.kr]

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Bone fragments found in the Tomb of King Muryeong have been attributed to the king or his queen 38 years after it was excavated in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province. The tomb is that of King Muryeong, who ruled the Baekje Kingdom from 501 to 523, and his wife.

A curator of the Gongju National Museum said on Monday four fragments of a human shinbone were recently discovered in the process of reexamining excavated relics kept in storage to make a fresh report.

There are no signs of court attendants having been buried alive together with the dead king and queen, meaning the bone fragments must have belonged to King Muryeong or his queen. This is the first time bone fragments presumed to belong to a king or a queen have been found in an ancient tomb in Korea.

Of four bone fragments found in the Tomb of King Muryeong, three are round with a diameter of 3 to 5 cm while another 20 cm-long bone is cut in two pieces. /Courtesy of the Gongju National Museum

The discovery of the human bone fragments is expected to shed new light on King Muryeong and the lineage of the Baekje royal house.

Lee Joon-jung, a professor of archaeology at Seoul National University, said, “Results vary depending on bone conditions. But we can determine the cause of death, gender of the tomb owner, his or her health and dietary habits, and their age and height at the time of death, by the radiocarbon dating method and stable isotope and DNA analysis.

Even wood fragments and iron nails discovered from the Tomb of King Muryeong are used as important materials for research on relics excavated elsewhere.

The Tomb of King Muryeong is the only ancient tomb that has been positively identified among all ancient royal tombs from the Three Kingdoms Period in Korea. Its excavation was rated as the most important archaeological discovery in Korea in the 20th century. But archaeologists were blamed for their sloppy excavation at the time.

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JoongAng Daily

	Plates, jugs and other artifacts were recently excavated at a site near the Korea Press Foundation building in central Seoul.

On any given day, crowds of people can be seen checking out famous downtown attractions such as Deoksu Palace, Namdaemun Gate and the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.

	A bullangi japo, part of a cannon used hundreds of years ago, was also found at the site.

But few visitors pay much attention to the Korea Press Foundation, which blends in with the hundreds of other tall buildings in central Seoul.

But a site just behind this structure, which is nestled between City Hall and the Finance Center building, has been garnering a lot of interest recently from historians - more for what’s below the ground than above it.

Researchers have uncovered a handful of historical treasures next to the press building, many of which date back several hundred years to the time of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

This past June, Shin Suk-jeong, the director of the Korea Cultural Properties Investigation & Research Institute Association, carried out an excavation at the site and found many artifacts, including large arrowheads, European cannon parts and other weapons that required gunpowder.

These finds are considered very valuable to the study of Korean firearms history and could shed more light on how and when these weapons were used.

Three similar pieces were found nearly three decades ago and together rank as National Treasure No. 861. Until now, no other items like them had been found in Seoul since then.

“The pieces that make up National Treasure No. 861 were found in a pile of dirt in a subway construction site at Mokdong, western Seoul in 1982,” said Korea Army Museum Vice Curator Kim Sung-hye. “This is the first time more of these relics have been discovered. They will give us more insight into Korea’s artillery from the past.”

	An inscription on the cannon details how much it weighed. [JoongAng Ilbo]

In a city where history and culture run deep, these types of historic time capsules are slowly revealing themselves as Seoul’s landscapes continue to change.

At the press building, researchers found something called a bullanggi japo, the main part of a type of cannon used during the Joseon era. This cylindrical artifact was made during the same time period as a similar cannon piece that Korea has deemed National Treasure No. 861.

The inscription on the recent find reveals that the cannon part was made by Kim Suk-hyeon in 1563, during the reign of King Myeongjong.

This type of cannon was modeled after ones found in Europe. They were much easier to load and fire than the artillery Korea had used up to that point.

The cannon quickly became a favorite of the Korean military and stayed that way for a long time.

Koreans first heard about this form of weaponry during the early 1500s from interpreter Yi Sok, who returned from a trip to China and reported his findings to the king.

The name bullanggi derived from the Chinese folangchi, which literally meant European, and at the time was primarily used to describe the Portuguese.

The weapons were made in several West European countries, including Portugal, during the 15th century. They eventually made their way to Asia when trading vessels from Europe reached Canton, China around 1517 and first appeared in Korea shortly thereafter.

The find near the press center building indicates that the site perhaps once housed a building that manufactured or stored weapons. Aside from the cannon piece, rifles were found in clumps and piled on top of each other in an underground heating system of a one-story building located at the site.

“It was impossible for the average person to own these types of weapons,” said Lee Myeong-yeob, a research supervisor at the Korea Cultural Properties Investigation & Research Institute Association. “So it is presumed that the site these weapons were found at was originally the annex of a government organization that was in charge of manufacturing weapons.”

In addition to these precious finds, researchers also unearthed many bowls and artifacts with the words “Nae Sum” - possibly referring to the person who made or owned the bowls - engraved on them.

By Lee Kyong-hee [estyle@joongang.co.kr]

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