A Human Figure Depicted on Wooden Document No.1 Excavated from Yangju Daemosanseong Fortress

This paper is an attempt to trace what kind of being the human figure depicted on wooden document No.1 excavated from Yangju Daemosanseong Fortress is. For now, it is difficult to interpret the entire contents of the wooden document in detail. However, we can see that it is related to the ritual for the Great Dragon residing in the Great Well of the fortress. In the second line of side Ⅴ, the character ‘咎’ is read, and the next character may be ‘殃’, which also has a similar meaning. That ritual could have been intended to pray to the Great Dragon to remove the cursed disasters(咎殃).<br/>Examining human figures of magical artifacts excavated from the ancient Korean Peninsula, some of them seem to represent real person, but there are more to be considered as virtual person. Masks and human face-shaped earthenwares are understood to represent gods.<br/> The human figure on the wooden document depicts papillae, so it is clear that at least the upper body is naked. Therefore, it is awkward to identify it as a god or a dragon. We can find naked figures among the japanese wooden figurines that were intended to substitute some real persons. In the ancient Korean peninsula, naked women was depicted on wooden documen No.4 excavated Hwawangsanseong Fortress in Changnyeong. Likewise, it may be assumed that the human figure depicted on wooden document No.1 excavated from Yangju Daemosanseong Fortress was the virtual human being offered to the drag- on, named ‘Mugeum’. However, it remains questionable whether the contents of the wooden document can be interpreted as offering human sacrifice.<br/> Another being found in the contents of the wooden document is ‘Demon(鬼)’. The first character of the third line on side Ⅴ was previously assumed to be ‘閑人’, but I think it should be read as ‘鬼’. ‘Demons(鬼)’ were considered the cause of the cursed disasters(咎殃), and must be driven out to extin- guish disasters. After being kicked out, they used to be sealed and buried. We can also find the methods of asking the dragon(or the big snake) to eat them in the japanese wooden documents and Qianjinyifang written by Sun Simiao of Tang dynasty. Dunhuang document P3358 depicted the half-naked Demons and the mixture of faces and letters, similar to the figure of the wooden document No.1 excavated from Yangju Daemosanseong Fortress.