A Dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, which represents the megalithic culture. The Dolmens are used as the tomb in most cases, but some of ...
A Dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, which represents the megalithic culture. The Dolmens are used as the tomb in most cases, but some of them are used as the tomb stone or the altar which sacrifices or other offerings are offered for religious purposes, or some other gathering place where ceremonies take place.
The Dolmen culture appeared in different times depending the areas, but it was when the culture of the area turned to the Bronze Age. It appeared around 4500 BC in Europe and around 1200 BC in Asia. The Dolmen culture disappeared in the Iron Age in which the introduction of iron farming tools led to the expanded farming land, requiring much more labor force because there are insufficient labor force in the Dolmen culture.
The Dolmen culture remains are distributed across Europe, Asia and Africa. The Dolmen in Europe remains especially in France, Ireland and U.S., sometimes including the Ethiopia inland and the Mediterranean Sea coast. In Asia, the Dolmens are found in the East Asian areas such as Shantung in China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, India and Japan, but their intensively distributed in the Korean peninsula in terms of number or size. More than 30,000 Dolmens of 70,000 so far found around the world, are distributed across Korean peninsula. In fact, the Dolmen is closely related to the civilization in Asia and Europe, but it is noted that the culture was the most prosperous in the Korean peninsula.
The Dolmen culture was introduced to the Korean Peninsula via two paths. One was the introduction with the Bronze Age culture from the northward of this peninsula and the other was with the agricultural culture along the Kuroshio Current from the southward. Accepting such new culture, Korean ancestors founded Go-Joseon, the first kingdom in the Korean peninsula to form its own cultural area.
Even though the Dolmen construction culture disappeared with the advent of the Iron Age, the story about Dolmen continues to appear in the myths or tales afterwards as culture. The Dolmen has remained till Chosun Dynasty in the form of folk belief called as 'Chilsung bawi' or 'Geobuk bawi'. People at that time served Dangsan-je, the religious offering at the Dolmens, and offer prayers in front of the Dolmen at their home with the water drawn from the well early at dawn. In addition, the culture was influenced by the introduced Buddhism culture, by giving the variation of Buddhism temple style to the existing Dolmen and by applying the Dolmen construction methods to set up the Buddhist statue and temple. In addition, the Dolmen influenced the names of villages such as Jiseok-ri, Taengseok-dong, Guam-ri and Chilsung-ri where the Dolmens are located and originated from the type and arrangement methods. In various Korean tales, the Dolmen appears to be related to the hyper-physical general, Divine grandma Mago and even in the birth myth of the heros and kings. Likewise, the Dolmens remain and influence on Korean culture.
The historical value of Korean Dolmens were recognized in December 2000, as World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The World Cultural Heritage includes Ganghwa Dolmen remains(located in Samseon and Osangri in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon), Gochang Dolmen remains(Jukrim and Dosan-ri, in Gochang-gun, Jollabukdo), Hwasun Dolmen remains(Hyosan-ri, Dogok-myeon and Daesin-ri, Chunyang-myeon, Hwasun-gun, Jollanamdo).
I tried to find the Korean image from these Dolmens. In front of the Dolmen at foggy dawn, I tried to express the Dolmen's own energy and calm atmosphere by emphasizing on the air perspectives. For the photographing, 5D Cannon digital camera was used and the Epson STYLUS PRO 9800 was used with UltraChrome K3 8-color ink for the printing on the Museo Silver Rac. As for several photos, the fence was removed by the Photoshop tool in the post-production process in order to express the magnificent atmosphere that the Dolmen had at the ancient time.
When new culture is introduced from the surrounding areas, the existing culture tends to selectively accept the advantages and characteristics of the new culture. However, as the transportation and communication technology is rapidly developed and moved today, new culture tends to be accepted as it is without such selection or evaluation process these days. The rapid and indiscreet acception of culture is making the cultural gap between the groups and generations and lead to the social conflicts through the barrier of the communications. In addition, losing the Korean's own traditional culture, such identity and independence spirit is fading together.
I tried to find the root of Korean culture and identity from the subject of Dolmen. Since introduced with new culture with the new external culture called as the agricultural culture of the Bronze Age, the Dolmen has formed its own culture through the conflict and reaction to our previous culture and maintained its position standing there in spite of the changes for thousands years. I hope we may look back on our attitude to accept the new culture in rapidly rush recently, by reviewing on the meaning of the Dolmen that will keep its value as the original current in our identity.