Oedo Island Dolmen No. 4

Dolmens (jiseongmyo) are the representative tomb type of the Bronze Age, also known simply as dolmens, and are generally understood to be the burial places of a ruling class with economic wealth or political power. Korean dolmens are divided into the table-type, in which four supporting stones are set up to form a stone chamber topped with a huge, flat capstone, and the go-board-type, in which a stone chamber is built underground, small supporting stones are erected, and a capstone is placed on top. The dolmens of Oedo-dong, Jeju City, stand in the hill country around Oedocheon Stream, which flows through the western part of Jeju City, and together with the dolmens at Gwangnyeong-ri, Aewol-eup, in the nearby former Bukjeju-gun (North Jeju County), form a cluster of some twenty dolmens. Oedo Island Dolmen No. 4 is located in a field slightly higher than its surroundings; its capstone measures 1.95 m in length, 2.2 m in width and 0.3–0.4 m in thickness. Where the capstone is thick it rests directly on the ground with no separate supporting stone, but at the thinner south-western and northern sides a single supporting stone has been wedged in at each. On the upper surface of the capstone are eight cup-marks (seonghyeol), holes made in the hope of a good harvest or of bearing children. Jeju Island's dolmens include some forms also found on the Korean mainland, but also special forms unique to Jeju. The most distinctive feature of Jeju's dolmens is that, although of the go-board type, their burial chambers are built above ground, and because they were built using sloping ground, the shape of the supporting stones differs even within a single dolmen.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jeju City, Jeju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물