Paleolithic Period (700,000 BC to 40,000 BC)
In recent years, Paleolothic remains have been found in a number of excavations. The best known sites are in Unggi countu North Hamgyong provonce, Chunghwa county South Pyongan and Kongju South Chungchong prov . These date from about 30,000 to 20,000 years ago. It is not known if the Korean people of today are the ethnic descendants of these Paleolithic people . Paleolithic man in Korea lived in caves and built dwellings abouve ground. Stone tools such as handaxes using chipping and flaking have been found from this period .
Neolithic Period
comb pattern pottery
Neolithic man, characterized by the making of polished tools and the use of pottery, appeared in Korea about 4,000 B.C. and were the same ethnic stock as the inhabitants o Siberia .Around 3,000 B.C. that pottery with geometric designs, called ' comb pattern pottery ' apears , such pottery of a similar design has been found in the Maritime Territory of Siberia .and Mongolia . Around 1,800 B.C. a third pottery culture characterized by painteddesigns spread into Korea from Manchuria. Unlike Korea's Paleolithic people, the ethnic stock of the Neolithic people merged to form the modern inhabitants of Korea. Neolithic sites are often found near the banks of rivers and seashores .Stone sinkers attest to the use of fishnets. Farming tools also make their appearance . Grain and nuts were ground by millstones. Neolithis man lived mainly in pit dwellings . Neolithic man in Korea held animistic beliefs, that every object in the world had a spirit . Neolothic graves are found with the head toward the rising sun in many sites .The basic societal unit of the time was the clan .
PREHISTORY
Evidence from a few scattered Paleolithic sites suggests that Neandertal man may have lived on this peninsula for half a million years, and that a Paleo-Asiatic man inhabited it from about 40,000 B.C. While little is actually known about these latter Stone Age people, it's assumed from stone tools and weapons, bone artifacts, food remains, and fireplace sites that they were hunter-gatherers and fishermen. Some lived on riverside flat land, yet most seem to have inhabited inland caves. It's likely that people moved from the Korean Peninsula to the Japanese islands about 20,000 years ago, when the Korean Strait was much narrower.
Artifacts from the peninsula's more numerous Neolithic sites indicate that Neolithic man replaced the Paleo-Asiatic man during several waves of migration from central and northeast Asia about 4000 B.C. (some suggest 8000 B.C.). The ancestors of modem Koreans, these people were of the Tungusic branch of the Altaic language group, which included the nomadic tribes of southeast Siberia, the Manchus, and the Mongols. Neolithic man lived along rivers and coasts. A hunter-gatherer and fisherman, he used polished stone tools and weapons, and produced round-bollomed plain pottery.
A second wave of immigrants began around 3000 B.C. The plentiful archaeological sites from this period reveal a comb-pattern pollery !!Imller to samples found in Manchuria, Mongo1111. Imd Routhorn Siberia. Small villages of pit dWflllh1U1 woro qenorally located close to water.
Better tools and weapons were produced, and weaving was begun. With the inception of rudimentary cultivation and the domestication of animals, people moved inland and became more sedentary. Along with a greater reliance on cultivation came an increase in population, with another probable migration to Japan. During this time kinship relationships developed and blood clans exchanged goods and intermarried. Superior cultivation techniques, advances in tools and weapons, greater variety in the preparation of foods, storehouses, and objects of decoration and veneration indicate a growing sophistication.
A third wave of migrants arrived between roughly 1800 and 800 B.C. These people created new pottery shapes and designs, some painted. They developed a more advanced society that gave rise to specialized occupations, formalized social relationships, and some sort of order and rule of law. These clans grew in number and size, evolving into associated clan groups and tribes. Neolithic man was an animist who believed that animate and inanimate objects have souls. As this belief became more important, the responsibility for the activities and interpretation of this quasi-religion was taken over by shamans who developed prestige and power within the community, and may have become chiefs or respected elders.
About 700 B.C., bronze was introduced to the Korean Peninsula and peripheral regions of eastern Asia, most probably from central Manchuria and southern Siberia. Also, an influx of people at this time from eastern China brought advanced technology, metallurgy, more developed agricultural practices, including the cultivation of rice, animal husbandry, and the production of undecorated red pottery. While still depending in part on hunting, gathering, and fishing, people of the peninsula established permanent settlements in river basins and upland regions. They established a social hierarchy of commoner, privileged class, and leader. The society produced metal tools and effective weapons, and honored their leaders with dolmen tomb burials.
Tribal units developed into walled-town states where territory, not blood or relationship, was the dominant cohesive factor. Eventually, these began to form larger confederations, with one group among them becoming most influential. These states had a centralized government, and were the foundation from which the first historical states evolved.
About 300 B.C., iron was introduced, allowing for improved agricultural implements (and greater food production), more numerous weapons, and the ability to use wood more effectively. From this time, houses began to be heated by the unique ondol system, in which hot air passed through flues beneath the lIoorheating the floor and warming the air above itand exited through a chimney on the far side. Because of the increase in population and the movements of people, warfare was common, causing shifting alliances and areas of control.