Songhakdong, Ancient Tombs in Goseong

As the bus approached the Goseong bus terminal, seven carefully manicured Gaya tombs erupted from the land. The careful trimming of the grasses is a sign of veneration to the deceased as respect must be maintained by traditional standards up to the fourth generation. However, these tombs are from an ancient era, the Gaya confederacy (42-532 CE). The language of the time was Old Korean and the religions were the indigenous shamanism as well as the not-so-long previously introduced Buddhism. The people buried were interred under religous practices of respecting the dead (a combination of both religions?) and the deceased were the royal polities. Actually, it is believed that these massive earthen tomb sites were built in the latter couple of centuries of the confederacy, or loose grouping of city-states, and thus the reason for carefully maintaining some of the founding "fathers" graves.

Of all the ancient kingdoms, the Gaya confederacy seems to have had the most international relations and trade with Japan, and this relationship seems to be reflected in tomb no. 1. Both Korean and Japanese historians debate the shape of tomb no. 1 because of its shape, which is similar to the Japanese front-square-rear-circle style tombs. (Korea, due to its 35 years of forced colonization by Japan from 1910-1945, still have much residual resentment about having "things Japanese" discoloring their history. Both cultures make claims for passing their culture on to each other; both cultures claim to be the first one to have a cultural attribute as neither one wants to admit that they "learned" or "acquired" knowledge from the "competitor".)

Archaeology of the Tombs

Donga University Museum examined the tombs from November 1999 to February 2000. Here are some of their findings:

(1) All tombs mounds were set and hardened artificially by the Panchuk technique: flatten the hill and each subsequent layer is hardened before proceeding.
(2) Tomb No. 1 is a group of three overlapping mounds containing 17 stone coffins and stone chambers, thereby proving to be different from the Japanese front-square-rear-circle tomb style.
(3) No. 1B-1 northernmost stone-chamber tomb has a style different from other Gaya tombs. It is confirmed to be a colored tomb with its entrance, stone walls, and ceiling painted red.
(4) 1,000 artifacts were unearthed: pottery, gilt-bronze earrings, horse gear, big silver thread-decorated daggers, high bronze cups, and glass beads.
(5) From the unearthed artifacts, the tumuli are believed to date back to the Small Gaya Dynasty in the latter 5th C and first half of 6th C. They are presumed to be the tombs of rulers and kings of the dynasty, and this Goseong tomb site is known to be the location of the Small Gaya.

The South Side of the Tombs

The Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910) was a period in Korean history when Confucianism flourished. Either in that time or since, a dense bamboo thicket was planted on the southern side, the typical side for planting bamboo based on reasoning steeped in pungsujiri and the symbol of bamboo for "straight" "correct" "scholarly" and probably a host of other traditionally held beliefs about bamboo. Walking around the lumpy royal graveyard, I passed some elderly Koreans harvesting some bamboo - for food? pencil containers and other household items? They waved their machetes friendly and happy that I was interested in their labor.

The Goindol Before

In front of the seven tombs sits a lone dolmen, a prehistoric tomb representative of the Bronze age. This goindol or jiseongmyo (dolmen) was not originally located here but was brought in to represent an even more ancient Korean people-group, one even more mysterious than the Gaya. This style of stone tomb is found widely in the Korean peninsula, through northeastern regions of China, and extends into the Kyushu region in Japan. This is a particularly rare goindol for it has 30 holes like cupolas 2.5cm in diameter. Seven of the holes are presumed to symbolize the Big Dipper, of spiritual significance in Korean society.

Sangjokam, the Elephant Rock

Sangjokam, due to its peculiar appearance, has been mystified through myth. Many of the peculiar rocks in the area have some kind of myth woven around them, but the legend of Sangjokam is commonly known to locals and was shared to me by a couple of elderly museum workers sitting on sheets of igneous rock imprinted with dinosaur tracks beside the cave. (I have to admit that the 사투리 "provincial dialect" of the deep south really prevented me from understanding the whole story, but I nodded my head dutifully and then tried to find a more complete story on the internet; there isn't much.) Anyway, the workers were waiting for the water to recede so they wouldn't have to climb the steep stairs and go over the cliff but could walk through the mysterious caves in the rockface where the fairies of heaven are said to have visited.


Sangjokam literally means "sang" (elephant), "jok" (foot) and "am" (rock). From a distance it does indeed look like the heavy legs and feet of an elephant. From the seaward angle the four leg-pillars seem to be holding up a rock table, and it is this rock-table that the myth is mostly concentrated around.

Okhwangsangje is the Korean emperor of heaven. The name is a derivation from the Koreanized Sangje or the Chinese Shangti, the supreme ruler of the universe based on Taoism. Myths around the the Korean emperor of heaven frequently employ some musical instrument like a flute or other heavenly tool that is made of jade, and so the Korean emperor's name has been expanded to Okhwangsangje, or Great Jade Emperor (of heaven). According to legend, the great Okhwangsangje would look down on earth and see the beauty of Sangjokam, and liking to wear new, beautious and golden clothes, sent some fairies down from heaven to weave golden brocades for him on the rock. While the fairies were in such a temptingly picturesque spot, they bathed in the Seonnyoetang. Once finished with their weaving, they presented the glorious clothing to their emperor. What is left of their presence on earth is the rock loom and the 50cm mineral-green, perfectly round pool of water where they bathed inside of the caves.

Goseong Dinosaur Museum

After seeing the dinosaur museum at Uhangri in Jeollanam-do (Goseong is the next province over, Gyeongsangnam-do), I was not so interested in this museum. This is an impressive museum but since this is the forerunner of dinosaur museums in Korea, it lacks the volume, layout, visual creativity and interactiveness that Uhangri has. That said, it does have some interesting artifacts. Included among these are 7 real dinosaur fossils, 37 dinosaur fossil reproductions, 108 fossils of other species ("other species" was never clarified to me), and 17 very impressive model dinosaurs. The museum was opened in 2004, held its first dinosaur festival in 2006 and its second in 2009, and now is drawing a lot of national and international attention. Rather impressive numbers, 1.7 million tourists, visited the museum during the 2009 festival months! The day when I visited was delightfully peaceful. On a weekday at 10am the opening hour, I probably shared the museum with one other person.

Built in Sangjogam County Park on the abrupt mountainside over-looking the former paleolake where dinos once trod, it has front road access and access from the back gate, below which one of the world's most impressive concentrated collections of dinosaur tracks are located. (Ironically, the dinosaur tracks are free 24/7 for the viewing but the museum has a charge - the natural vs. the manmade, and the natural is so much more impressive ... so go figure! However, the view from the low mountain top within the museum gates and the dino play area for kids should be appreciated by all as it is very cute and well-planned.


In the museum, I found the model dinosaurs particularly fascinating as I was interested to see how the leg bones were put together at the joints and curious to see if "caps" were reproduced on the bones. "Caps" are supposed to be bones that fuse to the ends of human and other mammal bones and once fused further growth of that mammal is impossible. Dinosaurs, classified as reptiles and not as mammals, are not to have caps ... but I was just poking my nose in everything because learning is free and for the alert. I didn't see any caps but rather doubt I would be able to recognize them anyway, but have to say, because I was looking for something specific, I was more aware of the detail put into the modelling of the bones, and so now I'm curious about WHY some dinosaurs are modelled with darker materials and others with lighter - there must be a prescribed system to it. Am puzzling on that right now ... must take a class in "bone reconstruction" to get some solid answers.

Walking along Goseong Dinosaur Tracks

From Oddity to Fame

In 1982 a specialist explained the odd rock imprints that had been a veritble puzzle to the locals in the Goseong area. Despite puzzlement when asked, locals principally ignored the peculiar rock impressions (although some regarded them as traces of cow excrement), but no one interpretted their presence as a mysterious link to a prehistoric past. Once, however, a specialist proclaimed the tracks as indeed a "gold mine" for dinosaur tracks, the area developed into a tourist attraction, hosting national and international visitors in the thousands every year, especially considering that due to the concentration of tracks, Goseong is considered one of the top dinosaur sites in the world - the top three being: Goseong, a site in Colorado, and Argentina's tracks.


The Goseong tracks in the Sangjogam Country Park can be seen around the clock as they are on a beautifully landscaped raised boardwalk for tourists to casually stroll along at low or high tide and view the huge diversity of tracks. The best viewing time is at low-tide, particularly when the moon is pulling the tide out, as few tracks can be seen when the gentle lap of water washes around the feet of the boardwalk that circles around two rocky promontories and curls along a wide beachy area.

The black layers of sediment rock lie slightly tilted toward the sea, and on these tilted sheets are the footprints of the ancient giants, whose tell-tale passing is certified in the igneous rocks. Goseong and the whole of Korea has very few fragments of the giants of yesteryear, but the footprints in the sedement are virtually the only physical traces of their passing.

What Are Dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs supposedly dominated the world in the Mesozoic Era until the Cretaceous Period (about 65 million years ago). The name "dinosaur" itself is a creation from two Greek words - "deinos" meaning "terrible" and "saurous" meaning lizard. As evolutionists believe dinosaurs walked the earth in domination and autonomy only during the Mesozoic Era. The various "terrible lizards" strolled the earth while slicing through the air above were the flying pterosaurs and swarming through the seas were icthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.

Korea has a rich dinosaur track population, and in fact, is the world's most dense concentration of dinosaurs and birds along its southern coast. Along the 6 km-long shoreline of Sangjogam County Park where this particular grouping of tracks are located are more than 1900 sets of footprints. Footprints here are from the quadruped, herbivorous dinos with long necks (sauropods - the most numerous here), the bipedal and quadripedal herbivores (ornithopods), and the bipedial carnivor dinosaurs (theropods - relatively rare when compared with the representation of sauropods present).

What is very unique about this site is that 70% of the dinosaur tracks in Goseong are parallel trails of ornithopods classified into nine different species, suggesting that these track-makers were moving in a herd. In various places dyke (cooling magma) and columnar joints (the rapid cooling and contraction of cooling lava) disrupt the dinosaur tracks in some spots.


Ripple marks in the sedement give geologists clues for interpretation of wave action, direction of the flow of water and lake turmoil/passivity based on the size and shape of the ripple marks left behind on the paleoshore.


This site has been designated as Natural Monument site #411, and Korea is trying to have these sites be inscribed on the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list under the title of Korean Cretaceous Dinosaur Coast.