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The Mumun pottery period is an archaeological era in Korean prehistory that dates to approximately 1500-300 BC. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated The Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language Romanization system in South Korea. McCune-Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language Romanization systems along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which The history of Korea stretches from Lower Paleolithic times to the present Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. This article is about the prehistory of the Korean Peninsula, from circa 500000 BCE through 300 BCE The Jeulmun Pottery Period is an archaeological era in Korean prehistory that dates to approximately 8000-1500 B Gojoseon was an ancient Korean kingdom considered the first proper nation of the Korean people. Jin state was an early Iron Age state which occupied some portion of the southern Korean peninsula during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE bordering the Korean Proto-Three Kingdoms of Korea refers to the period after the fall of Gojoseon and before the maturation of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla into Buyeo, Puyŏ, or Fuyu was an ancient Korean kingdom located from today's Manchuria to northern North Korea, from around the 2nd Okjeo was a small tribal state which arose in the northern Korean peninsula from perhaps 2nd century BCE to 5th century CE Dongye was a state which occupied portions of the northeastern Korean peninsula from roughly 150 BCE to around 400 CE Samhan refers to the ancient confederacies of Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan in central and southern Korean peninsula Mahan was a loose confederacy of statelets that existed from around the 100BCE-300CE in the southern Korean peninsula in the Chungcheong Byeonhan, also known as Byeonjin, was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the beginning of the Common Era to the 4th century in the Jinhan was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the 1st century BC to the 4th century CE in the southern Korean peninsula, to the east of the Nakdong The Three Kingdoms of Korea ( refer to the ancient Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla, which dominated the Korean peninsula Goguryeo or Koguryo was an ancient Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean peninsula, southern Manchuria, and Baekje (18 BCE – 660 CE or Paekche, was a kingdom located in southwest Korea Silla (57 BC – 935 AD was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Gaya was a confederacy of territorial polities in the Nakdong River basin of southern Korea, growing out of the Byeonhan confederacy of the Samhan North South States Period ( 698 CE - 936 CE refers to the period in Korean history when Silla and Balhae Unified Silla ( 668 CE - 935 CE or Later Silla is the name often applied to the kingdom of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Alternate meaning Bohai Sea Balhae (698 - 926 ( Bohai in Chinese, Пархэ in Russian) was an The Later Three Kingdoms of Korea (892 - 936 consisted of Silla, Hubaekje ("Later Baekje " and Taebong (also known as Hugoguryeo The Goryeo Dynasty ( 918 - 1392) (also spelled Koryŏ was a Sovereign state established in 918 by Taejo Wang Kon. The Mongol invasions of Korea (1231 - 1273 consisted of a series of campaigns by the Mongol Empire against Korea, then known as Goryeo, from 1231 to 1259 Two Japanese invasions of Korea and subsequent battles on the Korean peninsula took place during the years 1592-1598 The First Manchu invasion of Korea occurred in 1627 when Hong Taiji led the Manchu army against Korea 's Joseon dynasty. The Korean Empire was a former small empire of Korea that lasted from the Gwangmu Restoration of 1897 until Japan 's annexation of Korea in 1910 Korea under Japanese rule refers to the period between 1910 and 1945 when Korea was forcibly annexed by the Japanese Empire. The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was a Government in exile based in Shanghai, China and later in Chongqing, during the The division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allied victory in World War II, ending Japan For the history of Korea before its division, see History of Korea. For the history of the Korea before its division, see History of Korea. The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korean and South Korean regimes with major hostilities lasting from June 25 1950 until the The Korean Dynasties are listed in the order of their fall This list includes the monarchs' romanized posthumous or Temple names and reign dates This is a Timeline of the History of Korea. Some dates prior to the 6th century CE are speculative or approximate Korea ' s military history spans back thousands of years beginning with the kingdom of Gojoseon and its repulsions of ancient China The naval history of Korea dates back to the Three Kingdoms of Korea period when simple fishing ships were used Like most other regions in the world science and technology in Korea has experienced periods of intense growth as well as long periods of stagnation Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos This article is about the prehistory of the Korean Peninsula, from circa 500000 BCE through 300 BCE ^[1][2][3] This period is named after the Korean name for undecorated or plain cooking and storage vessels that form a large part of the pottery assemblage over the entire length of the period, but especially 850-550 B. Pottery is the Ceramic ware made by potters It also refers to a group of materials that includes Earthenware, Stoneware C.

The Mumun period is known for the origins of intensive agriculture and complex societies in both the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago. Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is an Agricultural production system characterized by the high Inputs of Capital, Fertilizers Physical geography See also Geography of North Korea, Geography of South Korea Mountains cover 70 percent of the Korean Peninsula and arable plains are The, which forms the Country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland washing upon the northwestern ^[2][3][4] This period or parts of it have sometimes been labelled as the "Korean Bronze Age", after Thomsen's 19th century Three-age system classification of human prehistory. The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for Christian Jürgensen Thomsen ( December 29, 1788 &ndash May 21, 1865) was a Danish Archaeologist. The three-age system refers to the Periodization of Human Prehistory into three consecutive Time periods named for their respective However, the application of such terminology in the Korean case is misleading since local bronze production did not occur until approximately the late 8th century B. C. at the earliest, bronze artifacts are rare, and the distribution of bronze is highly regionalized until after 300 BC. ^[5][6] A boom in the archaeological excavations of Mumun Period sites since the mid-1990s has recently increased our knowledge about this important formative period in the prehistory of East Asia.

The Mumun period is preceded by the Jeulmun Pottery Period (c. The Jeulmun Pottery Period is an archaeological era in Korean prehistory that dates to approximately 8000-1500 B 8000-1500 B. C. ). The Jeulmun was a period of hunting, gathering, and small-scale cultivation of plants. ^[6] The origins of the Mumun Period are not well known, but the megalithic burials, Mumun pottery, and large settlements found in the Liao River Basin and North Korea c. The Liao He (遼河 Liao River is the principal River in southern Manchuria (1345 km North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, 1800-1500 probably indicate the origins of the Mumun Period of Southern Korea. Kim suggests that as they moved south from North Korea, slash-and-burn cultivators who used Mumun pottery displaced people using Jeulmun Period subsistence patterns. Slash and burn consists of cutting and burning of Forests or Woodlands to create fields for Agriculture or Pasture for Livestock, or ^[7]

Chronology

Early Mumun

The Early (or Formative) Mumun (c. 1500-850 B. C. ) is characterized by shifting cultivation, fishing, hunting, and discrete settlements with rectangular semi-subterranean pit-houses. For methods see Slash and burn Shifting cultivation is an Agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily then abandoned The social scale of Early Mumun societies was egalitarian in nature, but the latter part of this period is characterized by increasing intra-settlement competition and perhaps the presence of part-time "big-man" leadership. ^[8] Early Mumun settlements are relatively concentrated in the river valleys formed by tributaries of the Geum River in West-central Korea. The Geum-gang River is located in South Korea. It is a major river that originates in Jangsu-eub North Jeolla Province However, one of the largest Early Mumun settlements, Eoeun (Hangeul: 어은), is located in the Middle Nam River valley in South-central Korea. In the latter Early Mumun, large settlements composed of many long-houses such as Baekseok-dong (Hangeul: 백석동) appeared in the area of modern Cheonan City, Chungcheong Nam-do. In Archaeology and Anthropology, a long house or longhouse is a type of long narrow single-room building built by peoples in various parts of the world Cheonan ( Cheonan-si) is a city located in northeast South Chungcheong province South Korea.

Important long-term traditions related to Mumun ceremonial and mortuary systems originated in this sub-period. These traditions include the construction of megalithic burials, the production of red-burnished pottery, and production of polished groundstone daggers. A dolmen (also known as cromlech, anta, Hünengrab, Hunebed, Goindol, quoit, and portal dolmen) is a type of

Middle Mumun

Northern-style megalithic burial from Jukrim-ri, Gochang-eub, North Jeolla Province, Korea. Jeollabuk-do (North Jeolla is a province in the southwest of South Korea. Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia.

Large Middle Mumun (c. 8th century BC storage vessel unearthed from a pit-house in or near Daepyeong, H= c. Daepyeong is the name of a complex prehistoric Archaeological site located in the Nam River valley near Jinju in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea 60-70 cm.

The Middle (or Classic) Mumun (c. 850-550 B. C. ) is characterized by intensive agriculture, as evidenced by the large and expansive dry-field remains (c. 32,500 square metres) recovered at Daepyeong, a sprawling settlement with several multiple ditch enclosures, hundreds of pit-houses, specialized production, and evidence of the presence of incipient elites and social competition. Daepyeong is the name of a complex prehistoric Archaeological site located in the Nam River valley near Jinju in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea ^[2][3][9] A number of wet-field features have been excavated in southern Korea, indicating that paddy field rice-farming was also practiced. A paddy field is a flooded parcel of Arable land used for growing Rice and other semiaquatic crops.

Representations of a dagger (right)and two human figures, one of which is kneeling (left), carved into the capstone of Megalithic Burial No. 5, Orim-dong, Yeosu, Korea. Yeosu ( Yeosu-si) is a city in South Jeolla Province South Korea.

Burials dating to the latter part of the Middle Mumun (c. 700-550 B. C. ) contain a few high status mortuary offerings such as bronze artifacts. Bronze production probably began around this time in Southern Korea. Other high status burials contain greenstone (or jade) ornaments. Jade is an Ornamental stone. The term jade is applied to two different rocks that are made up of different Silicate minerals. ^[9][4] A number of megalithic burials with deep shaft interments, substantial 'pavements' of rounded cobblestone, and prestige artifacts such as bronze daggers, jade, and red-burnished vessels were built in the vicinity of the southern coast in the Late Middle Mumun. High status megalithic burials and large raised-floor buildings at the Deokcheon-ni (Hangeul: 덕천리) and Igeum-dong sites in Gyeongsang Nam-do provide further evidence of the growth of social inequality and the existence of polities that were organized in ways that appear to be similar to simple "chiefdoms". Igeum-dong is a complex Archaeological site located in Igeum-dong Samcheonpo in Sacheon -si South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. A chiefdom is a type of complex society of varying degrees of centralization that is led by an individual known as a chief. ^[4]

Korean archaeologists sometimes refer to Middle Mumun culture as Songguk-ri Culture (Hanja: 松菊里 文化; Hangeul: 송국리 문화). Songguk-ri (soŋɡuŋni is a Middle and Late Mumun period (c 850-300 B ^[1] Co-occurring artifacts and features that are grouped together as Songguk-ri Culture are found in settlement sites in the Hoseo and Honam regions of southeast Korea, but Songguk-ri Culture settlements are also found in western Yeongnam. Chungcheong ( Chungcheong-do) was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Honam (literally "south of the lake" is a region coinciding with the former Jeolla Province in what is now South Korea. Excavations have also revealed Songguk-ri settlements in the Ulsan and Gimhae areas. In 2005 archaeologists uncovered Songguk-ri Culture pit-houses at a site deep in the interior of Gangwon Province. The ultimate geographic reach of Songguk-ri Culture appears to have been Jeju Island and western Japan. Jeju may refer to Jeju-do, an island of South Korea Jeju City, the biggest city on that island For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics.

Mumun culture is the beginning of a long-term tradition of rice-farming in Korea that links Mumun Culture with the present-day, but evidence from the Early and Middle Mumun suggests that, although rice was grown, it was not the dominant crop. Rice is a Cereal foodstuff which forms an important part of the diet of many people worldwide and as such it is a staple food for many ^[3] During the Mumun people grew millets, barley, wheat, legumes, and continued to hunt and fish. The millets are a group of small- Seeded Species of Cereal crops or grains widely grown around the world for Food and Fodder Barley ( Hordeum vulgare) is an annual Cereal Grain, which serves as a major animal Feed crop, with smaller amounts used for Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East.

Settlement sites of the Mumun Period that are mentioned in the text of this article.

Late Mumun

The Late (or Post-classic) Mumun (550-300 B. C. ) is characterized by increasing conflict, fortified hilltop settlements, and a concentration of population in the southern coastal area. A Late Mumun occupation was found at the Namsan settlement, located on the top of a hill 100 m above sea level in modern Changwon City, Gyeongsang Nam-do. Changwon is a city in and the capital of South Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. A shellmidden (shellmound) was found in the vicinity of Namsan, indicating that, in addition to agriculture, shellfish exploitation was part of the Late Mumun subsistence system in some areas. A midden, also known as a kitchen midden, or a shell heap, is a dump for domestic waste. Pit-houses at Namsan were located inside a ring-ditch that is some 4. 2 m deep and 10 m in width. Why would such a formidable ring-ditch, so massive in size, have been necessary? One possible answer is intergroup conflict. Archaeologists propose that the Late Mumun was a period of conflict between groups of people.

The number of settlements in the Late Mumun is much lower than in the previous sub-period. This indicates that populations were reorganized and settlement was probably more concentrated in a smaller number of larger settlements. There are a number of reasons why this could have occurred. There are some indications that conflict increased or climatic change led to crop failures.

Notably, according to the traditional Yayoi chronological sequence, Mumun-esque settlements appeared in Northern Kyūshū (Japan) during the Late Mumun. The is an era in the history of Japan from about 500 BC to 300 AD. or Kyushu is the third-largest Island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The Mumun period ends when iron appeared in the archaeological record along with pit-houses that had interior composite hearth-ovens reminiscent of the historic period (Hangeul: 아궁이, agungi).

Some scholars suggest that the Mumun pottery period should be extended to c. 0 B. C. because of the presence of an undecorated ware that was popular between 400 B. C. and 0 B. C. called jeomtodae (ko:점토대). However, bronze became very important in ceremonial and elite life from 300 B. C. . Additionally, iron tools are increasingly found in Southern Korea after 300 B. C. These factors clearly differentiate the time period 300 B. C. - 0 from the cultural, technological, and social scale that was present in the Mumun pottery period. The unequal presence of bronze and iron in increased amounts from a few high status graves after 300 B. C. as sets this time apart from the Mumun pottery period. It is thus that, as a cultural-technical period, the Mumun was finished by approximately 300 B. C.

From about 300 B. C. , bronze objects became the most valued prestige mortuary goods, but iron objects were traded and then produced in the Korean peninsula at that time. Physical geography See also Geography of North Korea, Geography of South Korea Mountains cover 70 percent of the Korean Peninsula and arable plains are The Late Mumun-Early Iron age Neuk-do Island Shellmidden Site yielded a small number of iron objects, Lelang and Yayoi pottery, and other evidence showing that beginning in the Late Mumun, local societies were drawn into closer economic and political contact with the societies of the Late Zhou, Final Jōmon, and Early Yayoi. This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. Lelang was one of the Chinese Commanderies which was kept in the Korean Peninsula over 400 years until Goguryeo conquered it in 313 A The is an era in the history of Japan from about 500 BC to 300 AD. The is the time in Japanese prehistory from about 14000 BC to 400 BC. The is an era in the history of Japan from about 500 BC to 300 AD.

Mumun cultural traits

As an archaeological culture, the Mumun is composed of the following elements:

Subsistence

• Broad-spectrum subsistence was practiced through the Early Mumun. In addition to its usual meaning in Social science, in Archaeology, the term culture is also used in reference to several related concepts unique to That is to say, evidence excavated from pit-houses and other outdoor household features indicates that hunting, fishing, and foraging was occurring in addition to agriculture. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many Social, Microeconomic and Government models Foraging theory is a branch of Behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment in which the animal lives ^[6]

• stone tools used in agricultural subsistence activities are common and include semi-lunar blades. A stone tool is in the most general sense any Tool made of stone. ^[4]

• Intensive wet-field agriculture (paddy farming) was in place in the Middle Mumun. ^[3] However, even the pit-houses of settlements associated with wet-field archaeological features show evidence that people were also engaged to some degree in hunting and fishing.

Settlement

• Large rectangular-shaped pit-houses were used in Early Mumun. A pit-house or ( dugout is a dwelling dug into the ground which may also be layered with stone These pit-houses had one or more hearths, and pit-houses with up to 6 hearths indicate that such features were the living spaces for multiple generations of the same household. ^[8]

• Some time after 900 B. C. , small pit-houses were the norm. The plan-shape of these pit-houses are square, circular and oval. They do not have interior hearths — instead, the central area of the pit-house floor is equipped with a shallow oval 'work-pit'. In common historic and modern usage a hearth (Har-th is a Brick - or stone -lined Fireplace or Oven used for Cooking and/or Heating ^[1]

• Archaeologists see this change in architecture as a social shift in the household. The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation Namely, the tight and multi-generational unit housed under one roof in the Early Mumun changed fundamentally into households formed of groups of semi-independent nuclear family units in separate pit-houses. The term nuclear family developed in the Western world to distinguish the Family group consisting of parents most commonly a Father and Mother ^[8]

• The average settlement in the Mumun was small, but settlements with as many as several hundred pit-houses emerged in the Middle Mumun. ^[8]

Economy

• Household production was the basic mode of the Mumun economy, but specialized craft production and a big-man-style redistributive prestige economy emerged in the Middle Mumun. ^[8]

• Archaeological evidence has documented cases in which it appears that surplus production of crops, stone tools, and pottery occurred in the Middle Mumun. ^[3][4]

• Artifacts that illustrate regional redistributive systems and exchange include greenstone ornaments, bronze objects, and some kinds of red-burnished pottery. ^[9]

Mortuary practices

• Megalithic burials, stone-cist burials, and jar burials are found.

• Some burials in the latter part of the Middle Mumun are especially large and required a significant amount of labour to construct. A small number of Middle Mumun burials contain prestige/ceremonial artifacts such as bronze, greenstone, groundstone daggers, and red-burnished ware. ^[10][9][4]

References

Further reading

• Nelson, Sarah M. (1993). The Archaeology of Korea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521404436.  

See also

• List of archaeological periods - master list
• List of Korea-related topics
• Prehistoric Korea
• Liaoning bronze dagger culture

External links

• Paper on Boseong River excavations, by Kim Gyeongtaek