Reconsideration of the Relationship between Complex Societies and Dolmen in Northern Part of Korea and Manchuria

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Dolmen is one of the principal mortuary programs in the Korean Bronze Age (ca. between 1000 and 300 B. C.). A number of dolmens have been discovered almost everywhere in the Korean peninsula as well as Manchuria, China. A great amount of research has been conducted by Korean and Japanese archaeologists concerning this style of burial. Some scholars became interested in a social reconstruction and they have asserted that Korean dolmen society reached chiefdom in association with both mortuary offerings like mandolin-shaped (also known as Liaoning type) bronze daggers and especially energy expenditure. This issue has been one of the hottest research topics in Korea for a long time. Many researchers have taken it for granted that Korean dolmen society witnessed a centralized political organization. This interpretation has been printed in Korean National History Textbook. Consequently, there is no way for the majority of Korean students to think otherwise. This paper, based on the analyses of spatial distribution of dolmen and artifacts recovered from the burials located in northern part of Korea and Manchuria, will argue that the dolmen society in the study region did not reach complex society (e. g., Old Joseon) but remained egalitarian.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25407