War, economic decay, and the vicissitudes of history have long since robbed the old wooden-
built towns and palaces of Korea of their original appearance. As the buildings disappeared, so,
too, did their contents, so that what has come down to us are only very scattered fragments of
Korean art. No great mediaeval fortresses or ancient town centres remain. The stumps of columns
scattered in the grass can convey little of the extent or nature of the artistic activity of previous
centuries.

Since so little has been preserved above ground, all the more interest attaches to the many tombs
and tumuli of the ancient settlements. The finds made here are often the only material on which
we can base our study of Korean art. Archaeological research is of primary importance as a
source of information not only for the more remote epochs but for more recent times as well.
In this sense Korea is indeed 'an archaeologists' country', where we may come across fragments
of brick two thousand years old, break into a vault to find a tomb fifteen hundred years old, and
pick up pottery eight hundred years old at the bottom of a ditch round a former palace or a
potter's shed.

Of the archaeological remains, the groups of tombs round P'yongyang have attracted most
attention. To the south of the city alone, on the left bank of the river Tadonggang, there are
over thirteen hundred tombs scattered in the fields in the close vicinity of the earth mound;
they date from the height of the Han dynasty in China, that is, from the beginning of the Chris-
tian era. This vast necropolis and the material found in the tombs, now preserved in the Central
Historical Museum in P'yongyang, bear eloquent witness to the life and culture of north-west
Korea two thousand years ago.

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