Changes in Wooden Tomb Rituals and Material Culture in Wooden Tombs in the Gimhae Region

In this paper, the groups of tombs excavated and investigated up to the present date in the Gimhae area were classified according to watershed. After categorizing the wooden tomb structures of these ancient tomb groups, attempts were made to establish the mean-ing of the pottery deposited into these tombs. Focusing on the emergence of wooden tombs, the process by which the rituals of wooden tombs came to be formalized following the transition to wooden tombs was examined, and changes in the material culture were discussed. Burial rites practiced prior to the use of wooden tombs involved cumulative rituals in a vertical space. The acceptance of wooden tombs brought about significant changes in buri-al rites. In the Gimhae area, wooden tombs appeared from the latter half of the 2nd centu-ry, and the rites for wooden tombs in a horizontal arrangement appeared in the Daeseong-dong burial ground, which was the central tomb cluster, around the end of the 3rd century. Pottery used in wooden tomb rites can be divided into vessels for boiling, sacrificial vessels, storage vessels, and ceremonial vessels. A standardized arrangement of the pottery accord-ing to wooden tomb form can also be observed. Along with this, various types of wooden tombs generated changes in material culture, alongside the formalization of wooden tomb ceremonies. In addition to the formalization of wooden tomb rites, this paper also presents a con-ceptual model for the diffusion and migration of tomb-building groups, and also suggests the possibility of various material and cultural changes. According to this conceptual mod-el, it was propsed that the possibility of migration is high if several non-indigenous cultural elements that are certain to have occurred in other regions appear in a group at the same time. Although specific elements of material culture left by the tomb builders cannot neces-sarily be regarded as cultural change due to diffusion and migration, the tradition of wood-en tomb rites can be understood and regarded as a cultural element that brought about change in the material culture.