National Heritage |
World Cultural Heritage |
| - Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites - |
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The prehistoric cemeteries at Gochang, Hwasun, and
Gangwha contain many hundreds of examples of dolmens,
tombs from the 1st millennium BCE constructed of large
stone slabs. They form part of the Megalithic culture,
to be found in many parts of the world, but nowhere
in such a concentrated form. Dolmens are megalithic
funerary monuments, which are numerous in Asia, Europe,
and North Africa.
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The prehistoric cemeteries at Gochang, Hwasun, and
Gangwha contain many hundreds of examples of dolmens,
tombs from the 1st millennium BCE constructed of large
stone slabs.
They form part of the Megalithic culture, to be found
in many parts of the world, but nowhere in such a concentrated
form. Dolmens are megalithic funerary monuments, which
are numerous in Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Korea
has the greatest number of any country.
These are of great archaeological value for the information
that they provide about the prehistoric peoples who
built them and their social and political systems, beliefs
and rituals, arts and ceremonies, etc.
The Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa sites contain the highest
density and greatest variety of dolmens in Korea, and
indeed of any country. They also preserve important
evidence of how the stones were quarried, transported,
and raised and of how dolmen types changed over time
in north-east Asia. Category of property In terms of
the categories of cultural property set out in Article
1 of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, this is a group
of monuments.
History and Description History Dolmens are manifestations
of the "Megalithic" culture that figured prominently
in Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures across the world
during the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE. This use of large
stones resulted from the emergence of new technologies
and led to the creation of stone alignments and ritual
circles such as Stonehenge and the Orkney monuments
in the United Kingdom, the chambered tombs of Brugh
na B inne in Ireland, and the stone circles and tombs
of West Africa.
They are a notable feature of the prehistory of East
Asia during the 1st millennium BCE. They are to be found
in western China (Tibet, Sichuan, Gansu) and the coastal
areas of the Yellow Sea basin (the Shandong peninsula,
north-western Kyushu). Dolmens appear to have arrived
in the Korean peninsula with the Bronze Age.
The Jungnim-ri group in Gochang are considered on the
basis of archaeological data to date from around the
7th century BCE. Dolmen construction ceased here in
the 3rd century BCE.
The Hwasun dolmens are a little later, from the 6th-5th
centuries BCE.
There are insufficient data to permit dating of the
Ganghwa group, but they are thought to be earlier rather
than later.
Description Dolmens usually consist of two or more undressed
stone slabs supporting a huge capstone. It is generally
accepted that they were simple burial chambers, erected
over the bodies or bones of Neolithic and Bronze Age
worthies. Earth mounds (barrows) would have covered
them, but these would gradually disappear as a result
of weathering and animal action. However, it is also
possible that they were platforms on which corpses were
exposed to permit the process of excarnation to take
place, leaving bones for burial in collective or family
tombs. Dolmens are usually to be found in cemeteries
on elevated sites. This would permit them to be seen
from the settlements of the people who built them, which
were usually on lower-lying ground. In East Asia two
main groups have been recognized, classified according
to their form: the table type (the northern type) and
the go-board type (the southern type). The first is
an above-ground construction: four stone slabs are set
up en edge to form a box or cist and a large capstone
is laid on top. In the second case, the burial chamber
is constructed below ground, with walls of slabs or
piled stones; the capstone is supported on a number
of stones laid on the ground. The so-called "capstone"
type is a variant of the go-board type in which the
capstone is laid directly on the buried slabs.
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Gochang Dolmen Sites (8.38ha)
The Jungnim-ri dolmens, the largest and most diversified
group, centre on the village of Maesan. Most of them
are located at altitudes of 15-50m along the southern
foot of the hills running east-west. The capstones of
the dolmens here are 1-5.8m in length and can weigh
10-300t. A total of 442 dolmens has been recorded, of
various types, based on the shape of the capstone.
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| Hwasun Dolmen Sites (31ha) |
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Like those in the Gochang group, the Hwasun dolmens
are located on the slopes of low ranges of hills, along
the Jiseokgang river. Individual dolmens in this area
are less intact than those in Gochang. The Hyosan-ri
group is estimated to comprise 158 monuments and the
Daesin-ri group 129. In a number of cases the stone
outcrops from which the stones making up the dolmens
were quarried can be identified.
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| Ganghwa Dolmen Sites (12.27ha) |
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These sites are on the offshore island of Gangwha,
once again on mountain slopes. They tend to be higher
than those in the other sites and stylistically early,
notably those at Bugun-ri and Gocheon-ri. Management
and Protection Legal status The three sites are designated
Historic Sites or Local Monuments under the provisions
of the Protection of Cultural Properties. Together with
their buffer zones they are further designated Cultural
Property Protection Zones under the same law.
As a result, any form of development or intervention
requires authorization and the carrying out of an Environmental
Impact Assessment. Any repair work must be carried out
by licensed specialists. The sites must be open to the
general public. The sites are also designated Natural
Environment Preservation Zones under the National Land
Use Management Law and similar constraints apply. Management
All the properties belong to the Government of the Republic
of Korea. Overall responsibility for the preparation
and implementation of protection and conservation policies
at national level rests with the Cultural Properties
Administration. The National Research Institute of Cultural
Properties, an agency of the Cultural Properties Administration,
carries out academic research, field survey, and excavation
(in association with university museums). Day-to-day
preservation and management is the responsibility of
the relevant local administrations (respectively Jeollabuk-do
Province, Gochang-gun County; Jeollanam-do Province,
Hwasun-gun County; and Incheon Metropolitan City). Funding
for repair work is provided by the central government
under the terms of the Protection of Cultural Properties
Act. Other sources of funding are the revenues from
admission fees to the sites and private donations. Anticipated
visitor figures are 350,000 (Gochang), 300,000 (Hwasun),
and 280,000 (Ganghwa). Management plans have been drawn
up in respect of the three properties. Their primary
objective is preservation of the original character
of the dolmen sites and their immediate environments.
The plans cover scientific research (survey, inventory,
selected excavation, palaeo-environmental studies),
protection of the environment (selective clearance of
vegetational cover, routing of visitors so as to cause
minimal impact on the natural environment, purchase
of neighbouring farmland to prevent incursions, etc),
systematic monitoring, and presentational aspects (signage,
access roads and parking, interpretation facilities,
increasing public awareness and participation of local
communities, organization of festivals and other events
on-site). Conservation and Authenticity Conservation
history Awareness of the cultural significance of these
dolmen groups is comparatively recent. The first excavations
did not take place until 1965, at Gochang, when ground
survey was first undertaken. This was followed by an
intensive programme of survey and inventory in 1983
and 1990. Further excavations took place in 1992, as
part of several research programmes in the 1990s, which
also covered means of conservation and land-use. The
Hwasun group was not discovered until 1996. Since they
are located in a forest reserve, their state of conservation
was good. The Academy of Korean Studies surveyed the
Ganghwa group in 1992. Authenticity As is the case of
the majority of prehistoric sites, the authenticity
of the dolmens making up this nomination is high. Most
of the monuments have been untouched since they were
built in antiquity, their present condition being the
result of natural processes of decay. In a few cases
they have been dismantled to some extent by farmers,
but the stones survive intact and their location and
original form can be identified without difficulty.
Plans are being discussed for the re-erection of certain
collapsed or dispersed dolmens. This work will be based
on meticulous scientific research in order to establish
their original configuration and location.
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