Gimpo City to Hold Public Viewing Event in Daegot-myeon
Highlighting the Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Value of the Site
Rising Need for National Heritage Designation
On June 21, Gimpo City in Gyeonggi Province announced that it will hold an academic conference on June 27 at the Small Auditorium of the National Museum of Korea to discuss the academic value and future preservation strategies of the "Gimpo Daegot-myeon Sinanri Ruins," the largest Neolithic residential site in Korea.
This event, hosted by Gimpo City, has been organized to share the excavation achievements of the Sinanri Ruins and to explore the necessity of designating the site as a national heritage asset, as well as systematic management measures.
The Sinanri Ruins, located in Sinanri, Daegot-myeon, Gimpo City, is the largest Neolithic residential site in Korea, with 42 pit dwellings dating back to around 3700?3400 BCE having been identified. Numerous representative Neolithic artifacts such as comb-pattern pottery, grinding stones, grinding slabs, and stone arrowheads have been unearthed. In particular, the typical forms of the dwellings have been well preserved, attracting significant attention from both academic and cultural heritage circles.
Excavations at the Sinanri Ruins began with a sample survey in 2017 and are now in their fifth phase. The scale and preservation of the discovered features and artifacts, as well as the ability to observe aspects of village-level life, have led to the site being highly regarded for its archaeological and cultural heritage value. Gimpo City plans to clarify the scope and characteristics of the ruins through additional excavations in unexplored areas and to pursue designation as both a Gyeonggi Province cultural heritage site and a state-designated cultural property (Historic Site).
The upcoming academic conference will feature presentations and comprehensive discussions on a variety of topics, including research achievements and the social value of prehistoric sites, the excavation results of the Sinanri Ruins, its position within Northeast Asia, management strategies as a national heritage site, and comparisons with domestic Neolithic heritage parks and museums. Through this, the city aims to gather expert opinions and establish more specialized and systematic preservation and utilization strategies.
Kim Byungsoo, Mayor of Gimpo, stated, "The Sinanri Ruins are a very important archaeological resource that reveals the lifestyles of prehistoric people and will become a representative prehistoric site of our country." He added, "We hope that the academic conference and the public site opening will raise national interest in the ruins."
Meanwhile, on June 26, the day before the conference, a public viewing and briefing of the excavation site will be held at 2 p.m. in the Sinanri area. At this event, any citizen can directly observe the excavation site and listen to archaeologists' explanations about the unearthed artifacts and features.
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