Kyongju is the archeological site of the royal capital of the first millennium kingdom of Silla. Because its ancient objects have mattered a great deal not only to its citizens but to the South Korean state and a variety of international actors, Kyongju is the site of a unique intersection of Kyongju ""things."" Oppenheim uses the controversy spurred by the proposed routing of South Korea's first high-speed railway line through Kyongju, to detail a battle in which the futures of Korean democracy, national culture, and Kyongju development were all said to be at stake.