"We Will Reinitiate Restoration and Maintenance According to the Cultural Heritage Administration's Results"
A panoramic view of the maintenance project for the Jiseokmyo Dolmen in Gusan-dong, Gimhae-si, Gyeongnam (Gyeongnam Provincial Monument No. 280). Photo by Gimhae City
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Ju-cheol In] Gimhae City, Gyeongnam Province, damaged the Gusan-dong Dolmen (Goin-dol, Gyeongnam Provincial Monument No. 280), the largest in the world, during maintenance work.
Gimhae City acknowledged that this maintenance work was carried out without consultation with the Cultural Heritage Administration.
On the 6th, Gimhae City stated in a position paper regarding the damage to the Gusan-dong Dolmen, "Since the Gusan-dong Dolmen is a cultural asset of Gyeongnam Province, we only obtained permission for alteration from Gyeongnam Province and omitted consultation with the Cultural Heritage Administration. We admit that we did not manage the details carefully and will reinitiate restoration and maintenance according to the Cultural Heritage Administration's measures."
The Gusan-dong Dolmen was an archaeological site excavated during the 2006 development project of the Gusan-dong residential district in Gimhae.
Academia judged this site, with a capstone weighing 350 tons and a burial area of 1,615㎡ centered around the dolmen, to be the largest dolmen in the world.
At the time of excavation, Gimhae City preserved the dolmen by covering it with road soil due to its large size and difficulties in securing a budget.
Later, Gimhae City, which promoted the designation of the Gusan-dong Dolmen as a national historic site, selected a cultural heritage specialized restoration company as the contractor and carried out the dolmen restoration and maintenance project from December 2020.
However, on the 5th, the Cultural Heritage Administration confirmed that during the maintenance project, the contractor removed the floor stones (bakseok) marking the burial area and disturbed the lower cultural layer (a stratum containing artifacts that help understand past cultures), causing partial damage.
Accordingly, the Cultural Heritage Administration pointed out that according to the Act on the Protection and Investigation of Buried Cultural Heritage, the area where buried cultural heritage exists should be preserved in its original form as a principle.
Furthermore, the Cultural Heritage Administration judged that to alter the current state, a separate cultural heritage preservation plan must be established and implemented, but during this Gusan-dong Dolmen maintenance project, no preservation plan was established or implemented, and there was no consultation at all.
Gimhae City explained that they manually removed each floor stone that had been damaged by long-term exposure to sunlight and rain, performed high-pressure washing and surface strengthening treatment, and then reinstalled them in place, without using heavy machinery.
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