The respected Comrade
"A valuable legacy created by our ancestors through their struggle and creative activities, historical sites and relics are an asset of the nation that should be handed down from one generation to the next."
Among the precious heritages created by our ancestors are the belt loops in the period of Rangnang Kingdom which show the excellent metalwork at that time.
The belt loop is a metallic thing for fastening a man's belt.
The rulers of Rangnang Kingdom made the belt especially in gold and silver to demonstrate their might.
Typical belt loops were found in the tombs Sokamri No. 9, Jongbaekdong No. 37, Jongbaekdong No. 92 and Jongbaekdong No. 2 from the 1st century B.C. to the 1st century A.D.
The appearance of the belt loops is all wide and rounded in the front with the rings, with a somewhat narrow rectangular back and a length of about 10 cm.
The front part is perforated with a crescent-shaped narrow, long hole to insert the belt, and the center is attached with a ring to hold the belt in place.
The belt loops were luxuriously decorated by drawing on animals and patterns, such as tigers and dragons, with various craftsmanship techniques.
The belt loops found in Rangnang tombs have been applied to excellent precious metal work, including printing, rubbing, and jewelry.
Firstly, the belt loops was applied with a thin layer of gold plate.
Plating is a weaving method in which a metal is rolled or forged into a thin sheet, and then it is attached to the surface of a precious object or accessory or directly made into a product.
The silver belt loop of the tomb No. 2 of Jongbaekdong was carved with a sheet of paper-thin gold between the neck, buttock and toe of the animal, and the figure of the tiger was carved with a thin narrow gold plate on the body part of the tiger depicted in the silver band of the tomb No. 37 of Jongbaekdong.
This shows that at that time, the technique of making gold foil by flattening the gold and attaching it to the surface of the object by delicately machining it into small pieces was at a high level.
Gold foil was made by rolling or stretching with a hand hammer, which is less than 0.15 mm thick.
The gold foil was carefully processed into small pieces to fit between the dragon's toes, and when applied to the corresponding parts, the gilt technique was used.
The gilt is a plating method in which mercury is applied to a specific area, gold foil is coated, and then heated to adhere.
It requires more difficult sophisticated techniques to coat only a few areas than to coat all sides of the craft.
The belt loops were also subjected to a high degree of filigree and jewelry embedding.
Filigree is a metalwork technique in which fine gold threads are placed on a metal substrate or patterned by the attachment of small particles of metal such as narrow grains, and the jewelry embedding is a technique in which a metal plate is grooved and embedded with processed jewelry.
These methods are still widely used in the decoration of precious metal artefacts, which are characterized by delicate and elaborate shapes.
The belt loop of the Sokamri Tomb No. 9 were grooved in the front face with gold thread and gold cloth, and the loops from the tomb No. 37 of Jongbaekdong, No. 92 of Jongbaekdong and No. 2 of Jongbaekdong were all decorated with silver cloth on the front edge and then blue or red jewels were embedded in the elements.
The belt loop of the tomb No. 9 were made of pure gold sheets, twisted like cords with thin gold threads, turned the gold threads inward, and in the meantime sawn again with gold threads.
There are seven dragons and clouds decorated with gold thread and large and small gold grapes.
And the cloudy section was decorated with 40 blue gems (jade).
Especially, the middle part of the dragon's body is thick, and the gold bracket is driven into a large one, and its sculptural effect is refined as it is driven into a small gold bead, reaching the head and tail, and the colour of the gold bracket and the clear blue color of jade evokes unique emotions.
This gold belt loop is the culmination of delicate and elaborate workmanship with the excellent precious metalwork.
In the tomb No. 33 of Rangnangdong, a fine gold thread of about 0.01 mm in diameter that was used for such filigree work was spiraled out.
The thin gold thread makes it possible to see that fine-diameter tools were used for the gold thread machining.
Like this, the belt loops of the Rangnang Kingdom are a precious heritage showing the excellent precious metalwork of our ancestors more than 2 000 years ago.
