Abstract
Korea has a long history of star maps, dating from the prehistoric period. Notable star maps in the prehistoric age are star-like cup-marks carved on cover stones of dolmens. Korea has the greatest number of dolmens in the world, and some of them have constellation-like cup-marks resembling Ursa Major, Sagittarius, Corona Borealis, the Pleiades, and so forth. Many of these cup-marks are concentrated on the southeastern part of the cover stones, towards the direction of winter solstice sunrise. The cover stones, however, are generally placed parallel with a mountain ridge. Meanwhile, there are many similarities between the patterns of cup-marks in dolmens of the prehistoric period and the star paintings in Goguryeo tombs constructed in roughly the fourth to sixth century.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Browne GF (1921) On some antiquities in the neighbourhood of dunecht house aberdeenshire. Cambridge Press, London
Compilation Committee of Joseon Technology (1996) History of technology in Joseon, 1st edn. Baeksan, Seoul
Hoskin MA, Zedda M (1997) Orientations of Sardinian dolmens. Archaeoastronomy 22 (Supplement to the Journal for the History for Astronomy 28):S1–S16
Im HJ, Yang SH (1991) Dolmens in Ganghwa. Seoul National University, Ganghwa-gun
Kim DI (1996) Dolmens with constellation markings. J Joseon Archaeol 100:31–36
Kim IG (1998) A study on the constellational cup-marks of rock in Korea. Komunhwa (Ancient Culture) 51:123–156
Lee JG (1996) Goguryeo and Dangun Joseon astronomy. J Joseon Archaeol 100:21–23
Park C (2008) Astronomy –traditional Korean science. Ewha Womans University Press, Seoul
Park C, Yang HJ (2009) Identification of constellations in Goguryeo mural paintings. J Korean Hist Sci Soc 31(1):1–45
Park C, Lee YB, Lee YJ (2001) A stone star chart found from a dolmen at Adeugi in Cheongwon. J Korean Hist Sci Soc 23:3–18
Yang HJ (2004) Analysis of Korean historical astronomical records. A doctoral thesis. Kyungpook National University, Daegu
Yang HJ, Park C, Park MG (2010) Study on the dolmens with cup-marks in South Korea. J Korea Petrogl Res 31:7–20
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Yang, HJ. (2015). Astronomical Aspects of Korean Dolmens. In: Ruggles, C. (eds) Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_228
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_228
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6140-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6141-8
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics