The Sijong-myeon area of Yeongam County, situated along the lower reaches of the Yeongsan River, is counted among the densest concentrations of jar-coffin tombs on the Korean peninsula. A jar-coffin burial — a distinctive Mahan funerary practice — involved placing the deceased's remains inside a large ceramic jar for burial, and more than 100 such tombs are distributed across this area alone. The scale of this site came into clear focus through excavations conducted by the National Museum of Korea in 1960, which examined six jar-coffin burials at Tomb No. 7 in Naedong-ri, Sijong-myeon, and by the Kyung Hee University Museum in 1967, which examined ten jar-coffin burials at Tombs No. 1 through 6 in the same area.
There is a clear geographic reason why the Sijong-myeon area came to hold so many tombs. This area sat at a strategically important junction linking the Yellow Sea to the interior, functioning as a gateway that received advanced culture arriving via the Yellow Sea and then spread it further inland. The large, rectangular-mound tombs that first appeared at Jangdong, Ogya-ri, in the mid-5th century were followed by the twin mounds at Naedong-ri, illustrating a process in which the modest jar-coffin burials distinctive to Mahan gradually developed into massive earthen-mound tombs with stone-chamber burial structures. South Jeolla Province has now applied to place this site, together with related sites in the Naju area, on UNESCO's Tentative List of World Heritage Sites.