The Mysterious Dolmens

We often underestimate our ancestors. Sure, they would be in awe of our cell phones and computers. But when we look at the resilient monuments they created—the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge, the Moai of Easter Island—we are left speechless as well, and wonder, “How did they do that?” More often than not, this question remains unanswered, and these wonderful structures are still shrouded in mystery.

The dolmens of Korea are such an enigma. Dolmens, or in Korean, goindol, are generally single chambers with two or more vertical stones supporting a horizontal capstone forming a tabletop. It is rare to find dolmens in China or Japan, but Korea has the highest concentration of these prehistoric megaliths—around 35,000 structures—in the world. Yet compared to dolmens in other countries, in Korea these structures have only recently been analyzed.

There are many Korean myths that attempt to explain the origins of dolmens in the country.

The Pingmae Rock in Hwasun weighs 280 tons and is the largest dolmen in the world. This structure is attributed to an earnest fairy. She lifted a stone and began carrying it toward Unjusa Temple after hearing that 1,000 Buddhas and 1,000 pagodas were being built near Unjusa Temple. During her journey, she was told that the buildings had been completed, so feeling disappointed, she dropped her stone and left.

The Ganghwa Dolmen is perhaps the most recognizable of these Korean structures. Anthropologists estimate that it took 200-300 people to erect the megalith, but according to folklore, it was the creation of a single careless wizard. According to legend, when the goldfish in Oryeonji Pond on Goryeosan Mountain flicked their tails toward China, the Chinese emperor got a headache. He sent soldiers to kill the goldfish and to stop the flow of “qi” radiating from the mountain. The soldiers asked an evil wizard for assistance. While he placed rocks on the mountain to stop the flow of “qi,” a few rocks rolled away forming the Ganghwa Dolmen.

In other Korean legends, dolmens are referred to as houses for witches or the work of ancient saints.

Though these tales are entertaining, they do little to quell ongoing debates about the origin of these structures. Various artifacts, including skeletal remains, jade artifacts and bronze daggers, have been excavated from these sites, but these findings have not led to a consensus about the lives and purposes of their builders.  Scholars are still unsure whether dolmens were used as tombs or for sacrificial rituals, and because of the large number of dolmens, no definitive chronology has been determined. It is also unclear how these enormous stones were transported.

We may never truly understand these structures or the builders behind them, but then again, in our world of search engines, a little mystery might do us some good.