Social Changes in the Youngdong Region of Gangwon-do in the Late Joseon Dynasty Seen through Burial Grounds : Focusing on the Goseong Ayajin-ri Relics

The purpose of this article is to review on the burial grounds of the Joseon Dynasty that are excavated and surveyed from Ayajin-ri of Goseong-gun in Gangwon-do. In Ayajin-ri, the survey was administered for the 175 burial grounds of the Joseon Dynasty and this endeavor demonstrated a clear difference in terms of location, quantity and degree of concentration when compared to the burial grounds confirmed from existing excavation and survey in the Youngdong region. Those burial grounds of the Joseon Dynasty surveyed from the relics of Ayajin-ri confirm that, considering the excavated relics, they were established around the 18th century. Therefore, in order to find out the causes of changes in location, quantity and so forth of those burial grounds for the Ayajin-ri relics in the latter Joseon, the change of population was taken a look first, but the population increase was not a determining cause. The Youngdong region of Gangwon where Ayajin-ri situates had intense natural disasters, such as, drought, flood and the like, as related to the 18th century climate change (little ice age), and the fluctuation of population through occurrence and inflow of the stray residents as well as migration of people was made in a very short period of time. When comparing the change of total number of populations before and after natural disaster, the population was declined, but the ratio of migrating people was rather increased compared to the existing residents. Those migrant people are considered as gathering around Ayajin-ri, a fishery village where it is more advantageous to the natural disaster compared to the agriculture villages as well as avoiding conflicts with the existing residents. In addition, Ayajin-ri was not just a simple fishery village but was an area more suited to economic activities as the hub of logistics that linked the sea and continent through the nearby Cheongganyeok. Accordingly, people who resided in Ayajin-ri during the latter Joseon were able to establish large-scale burial grounds on the basis of their stable economic power, and notwithstanding the fact that there was different economic and personal status within the village, it is highly likely that the classification of tomb sites to build up the tombs was not as restrictive as the villages where the existing residents were main line residents. Therefore, those burial grounds confirmed in the Ayajin-ri relics would be considered as the archaeological data that demonstrated the tendency of social and economic changes in the latter Joseon Period.