JB Life January 2017

HISTORY
By STUART SCOTT
JB Life Contributing Writer
Man’s history on this planet has many different
stories about its beginning and
its development. Some cultures interacted
and the collision of cultures was unavoidable.
Food, clothing, music, government, and holidays
have spread by contact with other cultures. Some
traditions, however, seem to have been created independently
by many different cultures. The great
pyramids of Egypt and Mexico are separated by a
vast ocean and many centuries. There is no evidence
to support any contact between the two cultures, yet
the many similarities in their construction and purpose
would strongly suggest that there was contact.
However, to this day, that is only speculation. Alcohol
is another example of something that appears in
many cultures. A consistent theme around the world
is that when man gave up his nomadic ways, alcohol
in the form of wine, whiskey, or other spirits soon
started to appear. There is no evidence of this process
being culturally transferred to distant places. It
is believed that the process used to ferment Korean
drinks is over 5000 years old. It is unlikely travel
between Greece (site of the first European alcohol)
and Korea happened at that time.
One other practice that appears to have happened
independently instead of by cultural interference is
the building of dolmens. A dolmen is usually considered
to be a collection of upright stones with a
larger one laid across as a ceiling or roof. The oldest
ones are in Europe and would be around 7000
years old. Of course, the older ones have suffered
the most weathering over the years. We cannot be
sure who built these first Dolmens, so it impossible
to prove why they built them. It is generally
conceded that they were some sort of a burial
chamber, but this is only speculation. Burial items
found nearby may or may not have been placed at
the time of building. It is possible that they were
changed to burial plots sometime after their construction.
We don’t know. Russian dolmens, for
example, are believed to be vaults for storing their
gold and other precious metals. The people in this
area were miners and eventually the local population
was conquered and enslaved to steal their
treasures.
The size of these dolmens has led to many stories
about their creation. One of the largest ones
is in Spain and is 25 meters long and weighs over
180 metric tons. It is seriously doubted by some
that the engineering technology required to build
such a structure was available at the time. Perhaps
we had visitors from another planet to help build
them. Perhaps some Godlike creature built them.
Again, even though there were many human skeletons
found inside, there is no evidence to prove
that they were placed there at the time of construction
or that it was built earlier with this purpose in
mind.
Another large dolmen is in Ireland. If the construction
date of 4000 to 3000 BC is accurate, then
it would have been built by the earliest farmers to
move to Ireland. How could these early settlers
have moved the 100 metric tons that these stones
represent?
Of course, finally we will look at the dolmens in
Korea. If one includes North Korea, the peninsula
has the largest number of dolmens in the world (an
estimated 35,000). “Dolmen” in Korean is “goindol”
(고안돌). This means “supported stone.” Remarkably,
the building of these structures is mostly
limited to the Korean peninsula in East Asia.
Some are in China and a few much larger ones
also exist off the peninsula. As Korea, too, was
becoming an agricultural society at this time, it
is hard to imagine the people having the time or
ability to build them.
One of the three main locations of Korean dolmen
is right here in North Jeolla province. This
group of dolmen is the largest in Korea. They are
mostly in the village of Maesan, near Gochang.
Sixteen-hundred plus dolmens have been located
here, with over 400 of them designated as World
Heritage sites. The ones in Gochang county are the
largest and most diversified in Korea. Unlike dolmens
around the world, there is evidence to show
the dolmens in Korea were indeed grave sites of
the important or rich citizens. Some in South Jeolla
province actually show the year they were built
and the identity of those buried within.
Also, almost all Korean dolmen are covered.
This would be consistent with the theory of a
burial chamber. The absence of a roof on many
dolmen outside of Korea raises certain questions
about their use.
Burial chambers, early art, protection from wild
animals, or built by visitors from other planets are
possible explanations given for their construction.
You can decide which you feel is correct. Whichever
explanation you choose, a trip to Maesen to
see these ancient rocks is a must, before you leave
Korea.
For more information on the Gochang
Dolmens, check out the TOUR section on
Page 12!
LEFT: A line of dolmens in Gochang.
[Photo by Renee McMillan]
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