Island in History or in Ecology? The Construction of Monumental Burials in Ulleung-Island in Korea

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Social and Environmental Interactions on Coasts and Islands in Korea" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ulleung Island, a volcanic island located in the middle of the East Sea, is 130 km away from the Korean peninsula. Created 1.4 million years ago, Ulleung is narrow and has limited flat land, yet humans lived intensively on this island from AD 600 to 950. During this period, monumental megalithic tombs were built intensively on the island. The tombs contain earthenware and simple iron tools brought from Silla, as well as gilt-bronze crowns and horse harnesses. Until recently, most archaeologists argued that tombs were built because the central government of Silla occupied Ulleungdo Island in order to control international relations across the East Sea. Yet, when monumental tombs were no longer built in the mainland of Silla, the tradition was revived on Ulleungdo Island and tomb building continued for more than 400 years. Taking into account this historical context, the current study proposes three alternative models based on island ecology to explain the lengthy duration of monumental tomb construction.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Social and Environmental Interactions on Coasts and Islands in Korea   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36438.0