The Songgungni Culture is one of the important cultures of the Korean Bronze Age. For this reason, it has been a focus of research in Korean archaeology. However, its archaeological concept and cultural boundary has only recently been established. Thi...
The Songgungni Culture is one of the important cultures of the Korean Bronze Age. For this reason, it has been a focus of research in Korean archaeology. However, its archaeological concept and cultural boundary has only recently been established. This article attempts to explore the potential inherent to burial placement of this culture based on those recent debates. For this work, Saxe/Goldstein hypothesis 8 (which argues burial placement pattern and its relationship with social organisation and the subsistence system) and its critiques raised in archaeological research, have been examined. It has been argued that despite its implication, this hypothesis should not be regarded as a cross-cultural law or checklist and that a specific pattern should be contextualised in the overall material culture when interpreting burial placement. In addition, a perspective for interpretation of the Songgungni Culture burials has been suggested, based on structuration theory.
As a result, the concentric pattern of burial placement in this culture is interpreted as a medium and outcome of the emphasis on equal membership in a community and the equality between members reinforced by referencing specific burials as the common ancestors or origins. By contrast, the linear pattern shows a process in which males (or male burials) differentiate themselves from other members (or burials of other members). Therefore, it is concluded that the significance of the linear pattern does not lie in its exemplification of high-ranking people, but gender differentiation.