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| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-08-13 17:55:53
SEOUL, August 13 (Yonhap) — Gimhae Mayor Hong Tae-yong apologized, "First of all, I'm sorry for the damage to the world's largest dolmen(Gyeongnam Provincial Monument No. 280) in Gusang-dong during the maintenance work.”
Mayor Hong said, "I was less interested and ignorant in the procedure" during the meeting following the press conference regarding the COVID-19 Hope Support Fund on Thursday as the issue of damage to the dolmen became a hot topic.
He said, "We should have discussed with the Cultural Heritage Administration first and got the permission, but we interpreted in our own way and damaged dolmens and paving stones (floor stones), which are also cultural assets.”
Mayor Hong also said, “We thought that it would not be too late to apply for a national historic site after deciding to do maintenance work, so we withdrew the application for designation of the Gusan-dong dolmen as a National Historic Site."
Mayor Hong said, "Since the stone has been removed, it was the Cultural Heritage Administration and Gyeongnam Province Cultural Heritage Committee’ idea to further excavate the lower part of the stone." adding, “The original plan was the maintenance of the Gusan-dong tomb completed in Aug., but it is most likely that the reorganization and re-excavation will be carried out for several months to a year.”
Mayor Hong said, "Since Gimhae made some mistakes, we will actively cooperate,” adding, "This incident became a painful lesson."
Gusan-dong dolmen are the remains that were excavated during the Gusan-dong residential district development project in Gimhae in 2006.
Academia analyzed it to be the world's largest dolmen, with a weight of 350 tons and a burial facility centered on dolmens of 1,615 square meters.
At the time of excavation, the dolmen was preserved with road soil as it was massive, and it was difficult to preserve and secure a budget.
Gimhae secured about 1.6 billion won in expenses and started the Gusan-dong dolmen maintenance project in Dec. 2020.
The constructor took out the boulder during the process to strengthen treatment and put it back in and touched the lower cultural layer (a layer that can help to know the past with relics).
The Cultural Heritage Administration, which conducted an on-site investigation of the tombs in Gusan-dong, stated that such maintenance damages cultural properties on Aug. 5.
Site where buried cultural heritage remain must be preserved in their original form under the Act on the Protection and Investigation of Buried Cultural Heritage
The Cultural Heritage Administration must establish and implement a separate cultural heritage preservation plan with the Cultural Heritage Administration to change this status quo, but there was no establishment and implementation of conservation measures as well as no consultation.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)
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