Urn

Urns for Ashes

In 528, the Old Silla kingdom (57 BCE–668 CE) was the last of the Three Kingdoms to officially adopt Buddhism as the state religion. With the spread of Buddhism, funerary customs of the Old Silla people gradually changed from burial to cremation. By the time the Old Silla established the Unified Silla dynasty (668–935), the first dynasty to unify and rule the whole Korean peninsula, the practice of cremation was firmly in place, and it continued into the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392).

The ashes of the dead were placed inside a stoneware or earthenware container, which could be deposited at a temple, inside a pagoda, or at a family burial site. These urns were often decorated with simple bands of incised lines, horizontal grooves, and twisted dangles. A stylistic shift occurred during the Unified Silla dynasty, when most vessels were covered with stamped or impressed designs of concentric circles, rosettes, and other floral patterns. Some of the motifs and techniques, such as stamping, continued into later dynasties.