Pottery use by early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Korean peninsula closely linked with the exploitation of marine resources

Abstract

The earliest pottery on the Korean peninsula dates to the early Holocene, notably later than other regions of East Asia, such as Japan, the Russian Far East and Southern China. To shed light on the function of such early Korean pottery and to understand the motivations for its adoption, organic residue analysis was conducted on pottery sherds and adhered surface deposit on the wall of pottery vessels (foodcrusts) excavated from the Sejuk shell midden (7.7-6.8ka calBP) on the southeastern coast and the Jukbyeonri site (7.9-6.9ka calBP) on the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula, that represents the earliest pottery assemblages with reliable radiocarbon dates. Through chemical and isotopic residue analysis, we conclude that the use of pottery at these sites was oriented towards marine resources, supported by lipid biomarkers typical of aquatic organisms and stable carbon isotope values that matched authentic marine reference fats. The findings contrast with other archaeological evidence, which shows that a wider range of available food resources were exploited. Therefore, we conclude pottery was used selectively for processing aquatic organisms perhaps including the rendering of aquatic oils for storage. Early pottery use in Korea is broadly similar to other prehistoric temperate hunter-gatherers, such as in Japan, northern Europe and northern America. However, it is also notable that elaborately decorated red burnished pottery excavated from isolated location at the Jukbyeon-ri site had a different usage pattern, which indicates that division of pottery use by vessel form was established even at this early stage.

The impact of environmental change on the use of early pottery by East Asian hunter-gatherers

“…Moreover, these culinary preferences persisted across Japan, even in warmer southerly areas where abundant nut and plant resources were increasingly available. Our earlier study from the Torihama shell midden site (5)(6)(7) in Japan indicates that this cognitive association persisted until at least the Middle Holocene, and may only have been truncated by the arrival of rice and millet agriculture approximately 2,500 cal BP. A similar association between early pottery and aquatic resources has also been identified in adjacent regions of East Asia such as Sakhalin Island (6,34,35) and the Korean Peninsula (5-7).…”

“…A further 6.9% (50/722) have C 18 APAAs and TMTD, which are most likely aquatic in origin (i.e., partial aquatic biomarkers; Table 1), whereas the majority of samples (81%; 582/722) contained phytanic acid, the most frequent isoprenoid acid. Among the resources available to Japanese Pleistocene and Holocene hunter-gatherers, wild ruminants such as sika deer offer the only other major source of phytanic acid other than aquatic oils (7,24). To distinguish these, we examined the ratio of the two naturally occurring configurations, or diastereomers, of phytanic acid [3S,7R,11R,15-phytanic acid (SRR) and 3R,7R,11R,15-phytanic acid (RRR; Methods)].…”

“…To distinguish these, we examined the ratio of the two naturally occurring configurations, or diastereomers, of phytanic acid [3S,7R,11R,15-phytanic acid (SRR) and 3R,7R,11R,15-phytanic acid (RRR; Methods)]. Despite considerable overlap, the SRR isomer tends to dominate in aquatic oils compared with ruminant fats (7,24), and a SRR% above 75.5% can be assigned to this source, using a conservative limit (95% confidence). More than 53% (306/582) of the samples with phytanic acid met this criteria; for the remainder, the source of phytanic acid is uncertain, as it fell within both the aquatic and ruminant range.…”

“…Organic Residue Analysis. Lipids were directly extracted and methylated with acidified methanol according to established methods (6,7). Briefly, methanol (1 or 4 mL) was added to homogenized carbonized residues (10-20 mg) or ceramic powders (0.5-1.0 g) drilled (2-5 mm depth) from the interior or exterior surface of the sherd.…”

Pastoralist Foodways Recorded in Organic Residues from Pottery Vessels of Modern Communities in Samburu, Kenya

“…Dudd and Evershed 1998;Evershed et al 2002;Copley et al 2003;Evershed et al 2008;Dunne et al 2012;Debono Spiteri et al 2016). Likewise, aquatic products (Patrick et al 1985;Hansel et al 2004;Craig et al 2007;Hansel and Evershed 2009;Shoda et al 2017), plant oils and waxes denoting vegetable and plant oil consumption/ processing (Evershed et al 1991;Copley et al 2001a;Copley et al 2001b;Reber et al 2004;Copley et al 2005;Cramp et al 2011;Dunne et al 2016) and beeswax (Heron et al 1994;Charters et al 1995;Evershed et al 1997b;Regert et al 2001;Evershed et al 2003;Roffet-Salque et al 2015), resins, tars and bitumen (Beck et al 1989;Mills and White 1989;Evershed et al 1997a;van Bergen et al 1997;Urem-Kotsou et al 2002;Stern et al 2003;Buckley et al 2004;Stern et al 2008;Connan et al 2013;Brown et al 2014: Brettell et al 2014 have been identified in connection with a wide range of technological and cultural activities. On a broader scale, lipid residue analyses can provide insight into the domestication of plants and animals, the development of animal husbandry practices and ecological and environmental changes through time (Evershed 2008b;Evershed et al 2008;…”