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| yna@yna.co.kr 2021-07-08 17:19:11
SEOUL, July 8 (Yonhap) -- According to the "Gyeongbok Palace Layout," which was produced between 1888 and 1890 after King Gojong, the 26th king of Joseon, reconstructed Gyeongbokgung Palace, it is estimated that 75.5 "kan" of toilets existed within the palace. In traditional Korean buildings, the word "kan" means a compartment or a space between columns.
A total of 17 toilet kans were in Geolnaegaksa, the offices that managed the west part of the royal palace, and 16.5 in the eastern Donggung area. There were no toilet spaces to be found on the central area that runs from Gwanghwamun to Hyangwonjeong pavilion.
The Ganghwa National Research Institute for Cultural Heritage introduced the large-scale lavatory with septic systems found in the Donggung area on Tuesday, stressing that they were "the first toilet remains found from inside the palace during the Joseon Dynasty".
According to the institute, the toilet was built in 1868 and used for about 20 years. Given that tiles were found in the pit, it is highly likely that there were buildings with roof tiles on top. However, the foundation of the building was damaged by later generations, and the exact size of the building is unknown.
In the Gyeongbokgung Palace, excavation and restoration have been conducted on a large scale since 1991, and raises the question of why were the remains of toilets were identified recently.
Also, the building on top of the toilet site excavated this time had 4-5 spaces and is estimated to have been used by up to 10 people at a time, but it is questionable whether there are more than 15 toilets of this size at the Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Yang Sook-ja, a researcher at the National Research Institute, said, "It seems that there were two large toilets on the site of the National Folk Museum of Korea, and most of them were small, so no additional excavation was found at Gyeongbokgung Palace."
"The king and queen used a portable toilet," he said. "The newly identified toilet remains are likely to have been used by lower-level officials, court ladies and soldiers guarding the palace."
There are many cases where lavatories were found at the excavation site. Some lavatory remains that measure up to 10 meters long were also found at the ruins of Wanggung-ri in Iksan and Hoeamsa Temple in Yangju, while toilets with large stones were exquisitely placed in Donggung and Wolji in Gyeongju.
What stands out about Gyeongbokgung Palace's toilet site is its water purification system. There is one waterway and two waterway exits in the toilet pit.
"There is a small toilet restored in Changdeokgung Palace, and it seems like the wastes were cleaned up frequently," said Jung Young-hoon, head of Gyeongbokgung Palace Management Center.
However, it seems that the toilet at Gyeongbokgung Palace did not remove the waste frequently. Assuming that about 150 people used the large bathroom at Gyeongbokgung Palace every day, the excreta would have been removed about once every one to two years, said Lee Jang-hoon, head of the Korea Living Environment Odor Institute.
According to the video produced by the institute, there seemed to have been a certain amount of water in the bathroom. When the dirt sinks naturally, and the water level rises, the purified water escapes through the outlet. Water also played a role in reducing odors as it helped the fermentation of human waste.
Although such cleanup system is said to be similar to a modern septic tank and has no parallel in foreign countries, some suggested that it is somewhat awkward to evaluate the system as the world's first. Traditionally, the East and the West had different ways of purifying manure.
Director Lee said, "In the West, waste is treated at a separate sewage treatment plant, but in East Asia, there was a culture of collecting and recycling excrement," adding, "It must be a technology that has developed a structure that purifies pollutants with water and discharges them outside."
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