Ganghwa Osang-ri Dolmen Group
Also known asOsang-ri Dolmen Group
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 Ganghwa Osang-ri Dolmen Group is a group of dolmens in Osang-ri, Naega-myeon, Ganghwa County, Incheon Metropolitan City, South Korea. It was designated Monument No. 47 of Incheon Metropolitan City on 26 April 1999.
One dolmen was known in 1972, and a survey in the early 1990s found nearly ten more. The group is dated by typological estimate to between 700 and 300 BCE.
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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
Ganghwa Osang-ri Dolmen Group
The capstones of the dolmens show traces of partial dressing, and the plan of every dolmen is of the plate-stone type.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 강화 오상리 고인돌군CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 강화 오상리 고인돌군CC BY-SA 4.0
The capstones of the dolmens show traces of partial dressing, and the plan of every dolmen is of the plate-stone type. The largest capstone, 335 cm long, belongs to the Naega dolmen, the one designated as a monument; the others range in length from 130 to 260 cm. The chambers are cist-shaped, and wedge stones were used around the supporting stones and end stones to make them firm. The floors of the chambers are mostly bare ground, but dolmens 1, 4 and 9 had floors laid with slabs or broken stones.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 강화 오상리 고인돌군CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 강화 오상리 고인돌군CC BY-SA 4.0
One dolmen at Osang-ri became known in 1972 and was designated a monument of Gyeonggi Province, but no detailed report followed. In the early 1990s a survey of the dolmen tombs of Ganghwa Island examined the area around San 125, Osang-ri, and found nearly ten more dolmens among the undergrowth.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 강화 오상리 고인돌군CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Korean): 강화 오상리 고인돌군CC BY-SA 4.0
The Korean Peninsula has more dolmens than anywhere else: about 40,000 are found throughout the peninsula, approximately 40 percent of the world's total. They were built from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, during the Mumun pottery period of about 1500 to 300 BCE, and are distributed mainly along the west coast and on large rivers.
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°44′10″ N, 126°23′14″ EFor a GPS or map app: 37.73609, 126.38712
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.
Ganghwa Naega Osang-ri Dolmen700–300 BCE- Megalithic tombSamgeori Cheongok Dolmen700–300 BCE
- Megalithic tombGanghwa Gocheon-ri Dolmen Group700–300 BCE
- Megalithic tombGanghwa Bujeong-ri Jeomgol Dolmen700–300 BCE
Ganghwa Island Dolmen Site5000 BCE–600 CE
Geoseok tomb near Ganghwa-ri700–300 BCE- Megalithic tombGanghwa Gyosan-ri Dolmen Group700–300 BCE
- Dolmen검단 대곡동 지석묘군700–300 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q65234576wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Ganghwa Naega Osang-ri Dolmen1.4 km SE
- Samgeori Cheongok Dolmen3.1 km NE
- Ganghwa Gocheon-ri Dolmen Group3.4 km E
- Ganghwa Bujeong-ri Jeomgol Dolmen4.7 km NE
- Ganghwa Island Dolmen Site6.0 km NE
- Geoseok tomb near Ganghwa-ri6.0 km NE
- Ganghwa Gyosan-ri Dolmen Group7.9 km N
- 검단 대곡동 지석묘군27 km SE
- Tomb of King Kongmin28 km N
- Tomb of King Wanggon30 km N
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "강화 오상리 고인돌군" (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): 강화 오상리 고인돌군CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q65234576CC0