Is new CHA head bull in China shop?

By Kim Tong-hyung

Byun Young-sup, chief of the Cultural Heritage Administration

The Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) rejected Thursday a suggestion to build a dike to protect frequently-submerged rock engravings at the Bangudae archeological site near Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province. This was another failure in the intense discussions between cultural authorities and Ulsan municipal officials over the past months over the preservation of the petroglyphs.

Bangudae quickly emerged as a front-burner issue after President Park Geun-hye picked Byun Young-sup to head the CHA earlier this year.

Byun, a former art history professor at Korea University who headed a civic association campaigning for the preservation of the rock engravings, was quick to replace a number of CHA veterans who had previously clashed with her and replaced them with allies from her activist days. She is also attempting to list Bangudae among state-designated historic sites to prevent further erosion.

The problem is that the CHA’s plan requires lowering the water levels at the Sayeon Dam, which was built in 1965, six years before Bangudae was discovered; and municipal authorities in Ulsan are alarmed by the possibility of water shortages. The dam’s water capacity is large enough to cover the rock carvings for eight months a year and Byun claims that the repeated submerging has damaged the engravings significantly.

With CHA and Ulsan city failing to agree on anything, the ruling Saenuri Party suggested protecting Bangudae with a temporary embankment before a permanent answer is found to the water shortage problem. After deliberating for weeks, the CHA has made it clear it doesn’t want that option either.

``Experts say that a temporary embankment would severely damage the rock engravings,’’ the CHA said in an emailed statement.

``Any kind of embankment around the rock engravings would need to be at least 15 meters in height and capable of withstanding enormous water pressure. There will also need to be major construction to bulldoze hills to secure new waterways. These jobs could damage the rock engravings by generating vibration and other shocks.’’

Ulsan officials are talking about circling the rock carvings with a barrier, which it calls an “ecological embankment.” However, CHA officials claim that such an installment would disrupt the environment, and therefore, derail their efforts to put Bangudae on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Bangudae, measuring three meters in height and 10 meters in length, is located on the lower part of a 30-meter cliff on the Daegokcheon river.

The engraved images on the rock face represent humans hunting a variety of animals, including more than 40 depictions of large sperm whales, right whales and humpbacks. They are shown to be hunted by people in boats with harpoons and lines. The engravings have been designated as National Treasure No. 285 and were listed on the Tentative UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011.

Experts like Byun have been talking up the significance of Bangudae, which they claim provide critical evidence about human life during the Stone Age. But there has been a lack of academic progress in determining when exactly the rock engravings were made. The CHA’s guesstimate is sometime between 6,000 and 1,000 B.C. It has also yet to scientifically back its claim that the repeated submerging of the engravings is hastening their erosion.