Kenneth Glad
Bones buried for centuries are telling a harsher story than expected. In several ancient Korean tombs, the dead were not just servants or soldiers, but relatives placed side by side. That detail changes the picture. It suggests these deaths were not random.
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The study, published in Science Advances, analyzed DNA from burial sites tied to the Silla kingdom. Researchers compared genetic markers across individuals and began to see a pattern emerge.
Some graves held parents and children together. Not nearby. Together.
According to the international team led by Seoul National University, these groupings were too consistent to be accidental.
Entire family units may have been selected, killed as part of the ritual and buried alongside elite figures.
Power and selection
Historical sources describe a practice known as sunjang, where attendants followed rulers into death. Historienet, drawing on earlier scholarship, reports that many victims were young adults.
What the texts do not explain clearly is how they were chosen. The DNA evidence hints at possible answers.
Selection may have followed family lines, meaning if one member was taken, others could be compelled to follow.
This could reflect strict social hierarchies, where loyalty to a ruler was not just personal but inherited.
In such systems, a household tied to the elite might have had little ability to refuse.
Clues in the DNA
The genetic data revealed close and extended relationships across many of the remains. Immediate relatives, cousins, and more distant kin were all present within the same burial environments.
In a few cases, the DNA also showed that individuals had parents who were closely related, pointing to tightly knit communities with limited marriage networks.
The timeline broadly fits historical records that place the practice between the third and early sixth centuries, before a royal ban in 502.
As the researchers wrote, “We believe that further archaeogenetic studies on the Korean Peninsula will reveal more information about population dynamics and family structures in ancient East Asia.”
The findings sharpen the historical record in a concrete way. These were not anonymous victims.
In some cases, they were families, removed together and placed into the ground as part of a system built on power, duty and belief.
Sources: Science Advances, Historienet
