House-shaped Funeral Urn

This funeral urn, which was excavated from Bukgun-dong, Gyeongju, represents the Silla peoples’ wish for the dead to live prosperously in an elaborate house with a tile roof. The grand houses of that time featured full-figured saddle roofs like this one, formed by linked concave and convex roof tiles. To complete the roof, ridge-end ornament tiles were placed at each end. Even though most houses were open at the front, this one has hinges where a two-piece door could be connected to cover the opening, neither the door nor the inner urn was ever found. This funeral urn is a valuable historical resource, since it reveals how tile-roofed houses looked during the Unified Silla Period.