Gold and jade crown

Gold and jade crown. Three Kingdoms Period, Silla Kingdom, Korea. Fifth to sixth century C.E. Metalwork.

• In the fifth and sixth centuries, the Korean peninsula was divided between three rivaling kingdoms.
• The most powerful of these was the Silla kingdom in the southeast of the peninsula. Chinese emissaries described the kingdom as a country of gold
• Worn around the forehead, this tree-shaped crown (daegwan) is the headband type found in the south in royal tombs at the Silla capital, Gyeongju. 
• Between the fifth and sixth centuries, Silla crowns became increasingly lavish with more ornamentation and additional, increasingly elongated branch-like protrusions. 
• Attached to the branch-like features of the crown are tiny gold discs and jade ornaments called gogok.
• These jade ornaments symbolize ripe fruits hanging from tree branches, representing fertility and abundance.
• The Silla crown demonstrates cultural interactions between the Korean peninsula and the Eurasian steppe
• Though their use of gold and practice of shamanism related to the northern steppe cultures, the Silla royalty adopted the burial customs of the Chinese by burying their elite in mounded tombs. In Chinese burials, objects that were important in life were often taken to the grave. 
• power objects like the Silla gold crowns were used both above ground and below, and their luxurious materials conveyed the social status of the tomb occupant in the afterlife.