How Did the Gusan Dolmen in Gimhae Get Damaged... Six Officials Disciplined

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] Six public officials involved in the damage incident of the Jiseokmyo dolmen in Gusan-dong, Gimhae-si, Gyeongnam, have been disciplined.

The Gyeongnam Provincial Audit Committee announced on the 25th that it had issued an audit report on the dolmen maintenance project conducted on the province and Gimhae-si from August 23 to October 12 of last year.

According to the audit report, although the province's permit period for alteration of the site had expired, the city continued to alter the site by removing and relocating the thin, flat stones called "bakseok" that mark the burial area and dismantling the base platform.

During the re-permit period, the city violated the permit conditions by washing and reinstalling the moved bakseok stones, which was not authorized.

In this process, construction contractor A did not report in writing to the supervisor and client about the construction differing from the design documents, nor did they obtain prior approval before construction.

The supervising architectural office B neither verified nor recorded the inappropriate construction and did not report to the client.

Jiseokmyo Dolmen in Gusan-dong, Gimhae-si, Gyeongnam.
[Photo by Gimhae City Hall]

As the client for cultural heritage repair, the city also neglected its supervisory duties over the repair company and the supervisor's work performance.

At that time, Gyeongnam Province visited the site on October 28, 2021, to conduct an on-site investigation of the city's alteration permit application after the permit period had expired, but it was revealed that they only listened to the city official's explanation at the site entrance and did not inspect the site in detail.

The provincial audit committee confirmed two illegal and improper matters by the province and Gimhae-si, disciplining six related public officials, issuing warnings to three, and cautioning two.

The Gusan-dong Jiseokmyo dolmen is a megalithic tomb site excavated during a residential district development project in 2006 and is registered as Gyeongsangnam-do Monument No. 280.

The capstone, called "sangseok," weighs 350 tons, and the burial area centered around the dolmen covers 1,615㎡, which academia estimates to be the largest scale in the world.

Gimhae-si preserved the dolmen by covering it with road soil due to the large scale of the dolmen and difficulties in securing the budget at the time of excavation, and began restoration and maintenance work in December 2020.

During this process, complaints were raised about alteration activities, and an emergency investigation by the Cultural Heritage Administration and the National Gaya Cultural Heritage Research Institute confirmed ▲loss of cultural layers around the dolmen capstone ▲destruction of cultural layers at the boundary wall installation site of the reservoir and pipeline facilities within the maintenance project site, leading to the suspension of the maintenance project.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.