The document summarizes information about three dolmen sites in South Korea - Gochang-Hwasun and Ganghwa - that were collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The dolmens are megalithic funerary structures dating back to 7th-5th centuries BC, and they provide insights into the prehistoric cultures that built them. Nearly 40% of the world's dolmens are located across the three sites in South Korea. Specifically, Gochang contains over 440 dolmens and is the largest site, Hwasun has around 500 dolmens, and Ganghwa features earlier dolmen styles situated at higher elevations. For the most part, the dolmens retain their authentic forms

1. Gochang-Hwasun and Ganghwa
Dolmen Site
By : Riri Kusumarani
Korea Culture & History I, Prof. Chun
Global ITTP
Spring 2013

2. Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Location
• Function

3. What Is it?
• Dolmen Sites
• Registered as UNESCO Cultural Heritage #97
on year 2000
• important evidence of how stones were
quarried, transported and raised and of how
dolmen types changed over time in northeast
Asia

4. Dolmen?
• megalithic funerary monuments
• Usually consisting of two or more undressed
stone slabs supporting a huge capstone
• Provide information about the prehistoric
people who built them and their social and
political systems, beliefs and rituals, and arts
and ceremonies.

5. Functions
• Funerary Monuments
• Burial Chambers
Dolmens are usually to be found in cemeteries on elevated
sites, to allow them to be seen from the settlements on lower
ground of the people who built them

6. Location
• 고창 군 , 전라북도;
• 화순군, 전라남도
• 강화군, 인천
Almost 40% of Worlds Dolmen is located
in S.Korea, Specifically at these 3 sites

7. 고창
• Area = 8.38 ha
• the largest and most
diversified group,
• Around 440 dolmens of
various types have
been recorded in this
location.
• Gochang is considered
to date from around
the 7th century BC

8. 화순
• Area=31 ha
• Around 500 dolmens
founded
• Hwasun dolmens are a
little later, from the
6th-5th centuries BC

9. 강화
• The Ganghwa Dolmen Sites (12.27 ha) are on
the offshore island of Ganghwa, on mountain
slopes. They tend to be situated at a higher
level than the dolmens of the other sites and
are stylistically early, in particular those at
Bugeun-ri and Gocheon-ri.

10. Authenticity
• The dolmens possess authenticity of form,
materials and location. Most of the dolmens
have remained untouched since the time of
their construction, their present condition
being the result of normal processes of decay.
Although a few have been dismantled by
farmers their stones have survived intact and
their original location and form can be
identified without difficulty.