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The Burial Ritual of Dolmen in Gyeonggi do Region

  • 인문논총
  • 2012, 30(), pp.363-398
  • Publisher : Institute for Human studies, Kyungnam University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities

윤호필 1

1경남발전연구원

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study restores the burial ritual of dolmen through the construction method of dolmen in the Bronze Age in Korea and the features of rituals followed in each stage. Based on it, it looks into the burial ritual of dolmen in Gyeonggi do region. The burial ritual belongs to general social norm. On the other hand, social class of the living beings and deader plays an important role in there. Therefore, the graves reflect such social relationship, and it gains strong tradition as it reveals as a view on life and death and a view on ancestor’s spirit of social group for long term. Rituals are performed in each stage of construction of dolmen, and through this, it plays a role reinforcing social union of members. Construction process of dolmen is divided into three big stages from the view point of a living person. The first stage is preparation stage for burial of dead body(Choosing tomb area and moving stones). The second stage is burial of dead body and building frame of tomb(Building main part of burial area and boundaries of grave). The third stage is maintaining the finished dolmen. Burial ritual appears in various ways in each stage. The cover stone dolmen and table type dolmen with different construction methods show certain difference in recognition of deader. From the view of spatial relationship, it can be divided into vertical and horizontal spatial relationships. The horizontal spatial relationship bring into relief the existence of grave by extending grave area while vertical spatial relationship makes the grave recognized as an independent existence by projecting appearance of grave onto ground. Therefore, the horizontal spatial relationship has strong relationship of family and relatives while the vertical spatial relationship has strong characteristics of independence and altar. Likewise, two different graves with different features of burial rituals and formats are built in the same boundary of grave in Gyeonggi do region. Therefore, the burial rituals revealed in dolmen which represents the Bronze Age reflect the social structure, culture, technology, world view and the view of afterlife, therefore, is very useful in understanding the Bronze Age.

Citation status

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