Everything about The Jeulmun Pottery Period totally explained
The
Jeulmun Pottery Period is an archaeological era in
Korean prehistory that dates to approximately 8000-1500 B.C. . It is named after the decorated
pottery vessels that form a large part of the pottery assemblage consistently over the above period, especially 4000-2000 B.C.
Jeulmun (
Hangul: 즐문,
Hanja: 櫛文) means "Comb-patterned". A boom in the archaeological excavations of Jeulmun Period sites since the mid-1990s has increased knowledge about this important formative period in the prehistory of
East Asia.
The Jeulmun is significant for the origins of plant cultivation and sedentary societies in the
Korean peninsula . This period has sometimes been labelled as the "Korean
Neolithic", but since intensive agriculture and evidence of European-style 'Neolithic' lifestyle is sparse at best, such terminology is misleading.
The Jeulmun was a period of hunting, gathering, and small-scale cultivation of plants . Archaeologists sometimes refer to this life-style pattern as 'broad-spectrum
hunting-and-gathering'.
Incipient Jeulmun
The origins of the Jeulmun are not well-known, but raised-clay pattern
Yunggimun pottery (
Hangul: 융기문토기;
Hanja: 隆起文土器) appear at southern sites such as Gosan-ni in
Jeju-do Island and Ubong-ni on the seacoast in
Ulsan. Some archaeologists describe this range of time as the "Incipient Jeulmun period" and suggest that the Gosan-ni pottery dates to 10,000 BP . Samples of the pottery were radiocarbon dated, and although one result is consistent with the argument that pottery emerged at very early date (for example 10,180±65 BP [AA-38105]), other dates are somewhat later . If the earlier dating holds true, Yunggimun pottery from Gosan-ni would be, along with
Southern China, the
Japanese Archipelago, and the
Russian Far East, among a group of the oldest known
pottery in world
prehistory. Kuzmin suggests that more
absolute dating is needed to gain a better perspective on this notion .
Early Jeulmun
The Early Jeulmun period (c. 6000-3500 B.C.) is characterized by deep-sea fishing, hunting, and small semi-permanent settlements with pit-houses. Examples of Early Jeulmun settlements include Seopohang,
Amsa-dong, and Osan-ri . Radiocarbon evidence from coastal shellmidden sites such as
Ulsan Sejuk-ri,
Dongsam-dong, and Ga-do Island indicates that shellfish were exploited, but many archaeologists maintain that shellmiddens (or
shellmound sites) didn't appear until the latter Early Jeulmun .
Middle Jeulmun
Choe and Bale estimate that at least 14 Middle Jeulmun period (c. 3500-2000 B.C.) sites have yielded evidence of cultivation in the form of carbonized plant remains and agricultural stone tools . For example, Crawford and Lee, using
AMS dating techniques, directly dated a domesticated
foxtail millet (
Setaria italica ssp.
italica) seed from the Dongsam-dong Shellmidden site to the Middle Jeulmun . Another example of Middle Jeulmun cultivation is found at Jitam-ri (Chitam-ni) in
North Korea. A pit-house at Jitam-ri yielded several hundred grams of some carbonized cultigen that North Korean archaeologists state is
millet . However, not all archaeologists accept the grains as
domesticated millet because it was gathered out of context in an unsystematic way, only black-and-white photos of the find exist, and the original description is in
Korean only.
Cultivation was likely a supplement to a subsistence regime that continued to heavily emphasize deep-sea fishing, shellfish gathering, and hunting. "Classic Jeulmun" or
Bitsalmunui pottery (
Hangul: 빗살무늬토기) in which comb-patterning, cord-wrapping, and other decorations extend across the entire outer surface of the vessel, appeared at the end of the Early Jeulmun and is found in West-central and South-coastal Korea in the Middle Jeulmun.
Late Jeulmun
The subsistence pattern of the Late Jeulmun period (c. 2000-1500 B.C.) is associated with a de-emphasis on exploitation of shellfish, and the settlement pattern registered the appearance of interior settlements such as Sangchon-ri (see
Daepyeong) and Imbul-ri. Lee suggests that environmental stress on shellfish populations and the movement of people into the interior prompted groups to become more reliant on cultivated plants in their diets . The subsistence system of the interior settlements was probably not unlike that of the incipient Early
Mumun pottery period (c. 1500-1250 B.C.), when small-scale
shifting cultivation ("slash-and-burn") was practiced in addition to a variety of other subsistence strategies. The Late Jeulmun is roughly contemporaneous with
Lower Xiajiadian culture in
Liaoning,
China. Archaeologists have suggested that
Bangudae and Cheonjeon-ri, a substantial group of petroglyph panels in Ulsan, may date to this sub-period, but this is the subject of some debate.
Kim Jangsuk suggests that the hunter-gatherer-cultivators of the Late Jeulmun were gradually displaced from their "resource patches" by a new group with superior slash-and-burn cultivation technology and who migrated south with
Mumun or undecorated (Hangeul: 무문토기; Hanja: 無文土器) pottery . Kim explains that the pattern of land use practiced by the Mumun pottery users, the dividing up of land into sets of slash-and-burn fields, eventually encroached on and cut off parts of hunting grounds used by Jeulmun pottery users.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Jeulmun Pottery Period'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://jeulmun_pottery_period.totallyexplained.com">Jeulmun pottery period Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
