Archaeological Review of the Presumed Goguryeo Stele Unearthed at Wolseong

In this paper, the primary focus is on the Goguryeo-style stele fragment discovered at Wolseong. The study compares it with Goguryeo steles from around the 5th century and Silla steles from the early 6th century, while also examining, as supplementary material, the moat stele fragment from the period of Silla’s unification of the Three Kingdoms. Through this analysis, the paper aims to reconstruct the probable locations where these fragments were originally erected and to interpret the historical contexts in which they were established. The Goguryeo-style stele fragments were discovered separately — one reported as a find in 1937 and another included in the 2024 Wolseong excavation report. However, these fragments originally belonged to a single stele that had broken apart and was later recovered from different locations. The stele’s original erection site is presumed to have been on the western side of Wolseong, near the areas of Seomunji 1 and Seomunji 2. The script on the fragments has been identified as clerical style (隸書, Lishu), comparable to that seen on the Ji’an Goguryeo Stele, the Gwanggaeto Stele, and the Chungju Goguryeo Stele. It is therefore assumed that the stele was erected at Wolseong as a result of Goguryeo’s southern campaign around A.D. 400, during the period when Goguryeo steles were actively established between the late 4th and mid-5th centuries. Meanwhile, the Unified Silla moat stele fragment is interpreted as an inscription commemorating the reconstruction of the stone-built moat in the latter half of the 7th century. Erected near the northern main gate and engraved in standard script (楷書, Kaishu), this completion stele reflects the stylistic development of Silla inscriptions that had been underway since the 6th century.