Cheori Seondol, Yeoju

A seondol (standing stone) is, together with dolmens, a type of megalithic monument of the Bronze Age: a natural stone, or one partly shaped from a natural stone, set upright and treated as an object of worship. Seondol served a range of functions and meanings. Those erected alongside dolmens functioned as grave markers signalling burial ground, while those set up at the entrance to a village served to protect the village, warding off evil or blocking the flow of a watercourse out of the settlement. Seondol erected on a low hill overlooking fields also carried a meaning of praying for abundant harvests, and elsewhere they served as boundary markers or waypoints. Bronze Age artefacts were recovered in the excavation of the Jincheon-dong seondol in Daegu, and, since seondol are frequently found standing near dolmens, it can be said that seondol in Korea have been erected since the Bronze Age. The Cheori Seondol stands on a hill where the flow of the mountains nearly comes to an end, commanding a view over the Cheongmicheon Stream and the surrounding fields. It is made of granitic gneiss, worked into a somewhat broad, flat shape, with a flat top, and stands about 2.1 metres high. Directly in front of the stone lies a flat stone 1.75 metres long, which may have served as an altar during rites. Standing on a low hill overlooking the Cheongmicheon Stream and the farmland around it, the Cheori Seondol carries the meaning of an object of worship associated with abundance.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeoju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물