Hyucheon-ri Epitaph Tablet and Ipseok

Dolmens and standing stones are known as the tombs and monuments of the people who lived during the Bronze Age, within Korea's prehistoric period, and are therefore of great historical value. The dolmen is the representative tomb type of the Bronze Age, also called a goindol in Korean, and is generally understood to have been the tomb form used by a ruling class who held economic wealth or political power. Korean dolmens fall into two types: the table-type, in which four support stones are set upright above ground to form a stone chamber topped with a massive flat capstone, and the checkerboard-type, in which a stone chamber is built underground with small support stones raised to bear a capstone above. This dolmen, found in Hyucheon-dong, Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, is of the checkerboard type; as no excavation has been carried out, the form of its substructure remains unknown. The standing stone, also known as a seondol, takes the form of one or several large stone pillars erected upright in the ground, and is thought to have served as a boundary marker between tribes or as a kind of monument at the time. The presence of both a dolmen and a standing stone here is evidence that our distant ancestors lived in this area from long ago. The combination of a dolmen and a standing stone together at one site is, in particular, a very rare example in Korea.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물