Eumseong Yangdeok-ri Dolmen
Also known asEumseong Yangdeok-ri Ruins
DatedEst. 700–300 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Eumseong Yangdeok-ri Dolmen, also recorded as the Eumseong Yangdeok-ri Ruins, is a table-type dolmen in Samseong-myeon, Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. It was designated Eumseong County Local Cultural Remains No. 6 on 7 December 2001, and is dated by typological estimate to between 700 and 300 BCE.
Only the rear supporting stone of the chamber now survives.
Read on Wikipedia1 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Eumseong Yangdeok-ri Dolmen
Supporting stones are set upright on the ground and a capstone is laid over them, forming a stone chamber that served in the manner of a coffin for the body.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 음성 양덕리 고인돌CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 음성 양덕리 고인돌CC BY-SA 4.0
The dolmen is of the kind known as the table type (northern type). Supporting stones are set upright on the ground and a capstone is laid over them, forming a stone chamber that served in the manner of a coffin for the body. It is presumed that supporting stones originally closed both the front and the rear of the chamber, but after a long time only the rear supporting stone remains.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 음성 양덕리 고인돌CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 음성 양덕리 고인돌CC BY-SA 4.0
The monument is presumed to be a grave of prehistoric people. It belongs to the megalithic culture, and is also called a jiseongmyo.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 음성 양덕리 고인돌CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 음성 양덕리 고인돌CC BY-SA 4.0
The Korean Peninsula holds about 40,000 dolmens, built from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, during the Mumun pottery period of about 1500 to 300 BCE. Monuments of this kind are generally regarded as marking the graves of the ruling elite.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Korean dolmens (goindol)
The Korean Peninsula has more dolmens than anywhere else: about 40,000 are found throughout the peninsula, which is approximately 40 percent of the world's total. In Korean they are called goindol, "propped stone", and they were built from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, during the Mumun pottery period of about 1500 to 300 BCE. They are distributed mainly along the west coast and on large rivers from the Liaodong Peninsula in China to Jeollanam-do. In North Korea they are concentrated around the Taedong and Jaeryeong rivers; in South Korea they are dense in river basins such as the Han and Nakdong and in the west coast area.
The great stones marked the graves of the ruling elite. Pottery, comma-shaped jewels, bronzes and stone tools have been excavated from the dolmens, and the stones show how rock was quarried, transported and used to build them. In 2000 UNESCO designated the Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites a World Heritage Site: Jukrim-ri and Dosan-ri at Gochang, Hyosan-ri and Daesin-ri at Hwasun, and Bujeong-ri, Samgeori and Osang-ri on Ganghwa. Together they hold over 1,000 dolmens, the highest concentrations anywhere in the world.
Dolmens in Korea have been dated to the seventh century BCE at places such as Gochang, and the practice ended around the third century BCE. Excavation at the sites did not begin until 1965. Where the dolmens came from is debated: one theory has the knowledge arriving from Southeast Asia along with rice culture, another from Neolithic peoples north of the peninsula, and a third holds that they arose on the peninsula itself.
When visiting, look for the way the rows follow a river terrace, and compare the table-like dolmens with those where the capstone sits low over the ground.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites, Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Mumun pottery period · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 700–300 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megalithic tombs in South Korea; this site has not been dated itself. Korean dolmens have been dated to the seventh century BCE in places such as Gochang and the practice ended around the third century BCE.Source for this date
Where it stands
South Korea
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 37°02′40″ N, 127°29′16″ EFor a GPS or map app: 37.04444, 127.48778
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q55733018wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "음성 양덕리 고인돌" (Korean), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Korean): 음성 양덕리 고인돌CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q55733018CC0