Silver Girdle with Pendants

Three Kingdoms Period
l. = 70 cm (~27.5 in)
Daegu National Museum
Daegu, Korea

Three Kingdoms tombs can include either female or male burials, or both; they always contain pottery, sometimes in great abundance. In addition, depending on the richness of the burial, they might also contain such metal artifacts as spearheads and swords, stirrups, horse bits, gilt-bronze crowns, and personal ornaments like gold earrings (not shown) or the silver girdle seen here. Only half of the finely-worked girdle is shown in this photograph. It includes several pendants that were suspended from its openwork belt; most of them consist of alternating shapes of beans and beads, with rectangular metal "tassels" at the end. One of the pendants ends in a fish, and another ends in a delicate comb-shaped ornament.