Abstract
This study set out to review dolmens with a boundary in the Yeongnam region and examine the characteristics and nature of the Gusan-dong Dolmen. In the Yeongnam region, approximately 340 dolmens with a boundary were investigated at 56 relics. The distribution of dolmens with a boundary covers the entire Yeongnam region. They appeared in a relatively late period of the former part in the Bronze Age and continued to be constructed until the early Iron Age. Entering the latter part of the Bronze Age, large-scale dolmens with a boundary were built in clusters. This period witnessed the stratification process of such large-scale dolmens with a boundary, but they had not entered a completely unequal society yet. Entering the early Iron Age, they entered an unequal society and built graves for individuals rather than the community. Only a large-scale dolmen with a boundary was built for a grave group. The Gusan-dong Dolmen is characterized by its overwhelmingly vast size, its uniqueness as the only dolmen with a boundary in the grave group, its stone stable orthogonal to the grave boundary, its wooden coffin for the subject of burial, and its artifacts heterogeneous from the ones of the old dolmens including jars and pedestal vessel pottery. There is no doubt that the dolmen was built as a tomb in the early Iron Age. The settlement of new migrants in the Gimhae area was late because there was a force that was powerful enough to build the Gusan-dong Dolmen in the area. The Gusan-dong Dolmen was the last chief tomb built by local people in the early Iron Age, displaying their acceptance of changes during a transitional period at the end of the Bronze Age in a symbolic way. It marked the end of the Bronze Age and opened a new age.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have