KOREASCHOLAR

This study examined the food culture of the Koryo Dynasty during the early 13th century based on the records of wooden tablets and marine relics from the 1st and 2nd ships of Mado wrecked at sea off Taean while sailing for Gaegyeong containing various types of grain paid as taxes and tributes. The recipients of the cargo on the 1st ship of Mado were bureaucrats living in Gaegyeong during the period of the military regime of the Koryo Dynasty, and the place of embarkation was the inlet around Haenam (Juksan Prefecture) and Naju (Hoijin Prefecture) in Jolla-do. On wooden tablets were recorded 37 items of rice, cereal, and fermented foods. The measures used in the records were seok [石-20 du (斗)] for cereal, seok [15 du, 20 du] for fermented soybean paste, and pot (缸) and volume (斗) for salted fish. The places of embarkation on the 2nd ship of Mado were Jeongeup (Gobu Prefecture), Gochang (Jangsa Prefecture, Musong Prefecture), etc. On wooden tablets were recorded 29 items of rice, cereal, fermented foods, seasame oil, and honey. The volume measure for yeast guk (麴), the fermentative organism for rice wine, was nang [囊-geun (斤)], and the measure for sesame oil and honey, which were materials of oil-and-honey pastries and confections, was joon (樽-seong, 盛). Honey and sesame oil were luxury foods for the upper-class people of the Koryo Dynasty, and they were carried in high-quality inlaid celadon vases in Meibyung style. Food names and measures written on wooden tablets and actual artifacts found in the 1st and 2nd ships of Mado are valuable materials for research into agriculture, cereal, and fermented foods of the Koryo Dynasty in the early 13th century. Besides, relics such as grains and bones of fish and animals from the Koryo Dynasty are expected to provide crucial information usable in studies on food history of the Korean Peninsula.

• 고경희(가톨릭대학교 생활과학대학 식품영양학전공) | Kyung-Hee Koh Corresponding author