1,600-year-old Baekje tools, including wooden-handled iron axe, unearthed at Chungju fortress

A 1,600-year-old winnowing basket and a complete iron axe still attached to its wooden handle are among the artifacts recovered from Jangmisan Fortress in Chungju, South Korea.

The National Research Institute of Central Cultural Heritage said excavations identified the largest wooden reservoir yet found at a Hanseong Baekje site from the first to fourth centuries. The square reservoir measured about 6.7 meters on each inner side and was about 1.8 meters deep. Builders shaped timbers longer than seven meters and fitted them into nine interlocking layers.

The reservoir stood in a northern valley inside the fortress, where it stored and controlled water. Researchers filtered all the soil from the structure through water screens, recovering evidence of rice, red beans, soybeans and more than 50 cultivated or wild plant species. Bones from cattle, pigs and dogs were also found.

The excavation also revealed a Baekje-style rammed-earth wall beneath the fortress’s stone wall. Researchers said the construction technique resembled the engineering used at Pungnaptoseong, the royal Baekje fortress in present-day Seoul, and is rarely found at provincial mountain fortresses. Central-style pottery and lacquerware were recovered in large quantities.

The institute said the evidence shows that Baekje used Jangmisan Fortress as a key base in the central region, deploying technology and organized labor and material resources there. The wider excavation has continued since the second half of 2022 under a long-term project involving the national heritage authorities, North Chungcheong Province and Chungju. A special exhibition runs through December 31, while limited public visits to the excavation site are scheduled for the fourth and fifth.

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The traces show that Hanseong Baekje royal-city rammed-earth technology was actively applied, while large quantities of central-style pottery and lacquerware indicate that Baekje designated Jangmisan Fortress as a key base in the central region and invested central technology and organizational resources there.