Sinan Heuksanjin-ri Dolmen Group

Dolmens are the representative tombs of the Bronze Age, also known as goindol, and are generally understood to be the graves of a ruling class who held economic wealth or political power. Dolmens in Korea fall into two types: 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 with small supporting stones set beneath a capstone. Jeollanam-do Province has the greatest concentration of dolmens in the country, with more than about twenty thousand examples found to date. The Heuksanjin-ri dolmen group stands on a hill about 100m from Heuksan Elementary School. The largest dolmen measures 2.25m in length and 1.57m in width, and among the six dolmens, three were found to have small supporting stones holding up the capstone. Excavation uncovered fragments of dark brown plain pottery and grey-brown pottery, which, together with a prehistoric shell midden investigated nearby, show that people lived in this area from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age. The discovery of dolmens on an island far from the mainland makes this group an important source for understanding how the dolmen tradition spread across Korea.

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Where it is

Region

Sinan, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료