Oedo Island Dolmen No. 5

A dolmen (jiseokmyo), also called a goindol, is a representative type of tomb from the Bronze Age, generally believed to have held members of a ruling class with wealth or political power. Korean dolmens are divided into the table-type, in which four support stones form a stone chamber topped with a huge, flat capstone, and the go-board type, in which a stone chamber is built underground with small support stones set beneath the capstone. The group of dolmens in Oedo-dong, Jeju City, stands on the hilly ground along the Oedocheon Stream, which flows through the western part of the city, and together with the dolmens at Gwangnyeong-ri, Aewol-eup, in the neighbouring Bukjeju-gun, forms a cluster of some twenty dolmens. Oedo Dolmen No. 5 has a capstone 3.15m long and 2.65m wide set directly on a protruding bedrock outcrop, with one side raised high and the other almost touching the ground. On the upper surface of the capstone are eight cup-marks (seonghyeol), small hollows carved to pray for a bountiful harvest or for the birth of children. The dolmens of Jeju Island include forms shared with those on the southern Korean mainland, as well as distinctive types found only on Jeju. Their most notable feature is that, although of the go-board type, the burial chamber is set above ground, and because the dolmens were built on sloping terrain, the shape of the support stones can differ even within a single dolmen.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jeju City, Jeju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물