Sedentism, Settlements, and Radiocarbon Dates of Neolithic Korea

Abstract

There are two conflicting models regarding the role of the Neolithic millet cultivation in the appearance of the Bronze Age farming economy in South Korea. The “continuity model” suggests that the emergence of a farming economy was a consequence of increasing sedentism, and that millet cultivation practiced during the Neolithic played a significant role in the transition to the Bronze Age. On the contrary, the “discontinuity model” suggests that the appearance of the Bronze Age farming economy heavily dependent on rice had little to do with previous millet cultivation in the Neolithic and the degree of sedentism during the latest Neolithic was very low. We test these models by looking into a temporal variation of sedentism, by quantitatively analyzing the quantity of pit houses and settlements based on relative chronology and radiocarbon dates. Sedentary settlements with small-scale millet cultivation appeared in the central-western Korea during the early fourth millennium b.c . They increased sharply during the late fourth millennium b.c . and also appeared in central-eastern and southern Korea, but they almost disappeared in central and southern Korea from the late third millennium b.c ., suggesting a return to increased mobility and/or sharp decrease in population. Hence a continuity model for the emergence of a farming economy cannot be accepted. We suggest environmental deterioration as a prime mover for both the appearance of millet cultivation during the fourth millennium b.c . and the disappearance of sedentary settlement from the late third millennium b.c . in Korea.

Archaeolinguistic evidence for the farming/language dispersal of Koreanic

“…Despite this earlier research, Kim and Park (2020) emphasize that a population decline after the introduction of millet is evidence that a large migration into the Korean peninsula did not occur in the fourth millennium BC. However, Kim and Park's figure 1, adapted from Ahn et al (2015), places the arrival of millet at 3500 BC; if millet had reached Korea a century or two earliera possibility supported by Ahn et al (2015) and G.A. then figure 1 would show a significant initial increase in population with millet farming.…”

Millet vs rice: an evaluation of the farming/language dispersal hypothesis in the Korean context

“…In Korea, millet first appeared in the Chulmun Period (6000-1300 BCE). The Chulmun Period was characterized by a hunter-gatherer-fisher economy in which pottery was used, although there was extreme regional diversity in subsistence strategies, stone tool assemblages, pottery styles and the major resources utilized (Ahn et al 2015;Lim 2012;Kim 2003a. Freshwater fishing and the collection of various plant resources were a major part of the Chulmun subsistence economy, evidenced by findings of stone tools such as net sinkers, fishhooks and points, and the remains of wild plants such as acorns and nuts.…”

“…Shell middens dated from early to the latest Chulmun are densely distributed along the coast and on offshore islands of the Korean Peninsula (Kim , 2010. Considering these various data, many Korean archaeologists have reached a consensus that the Chulmun subsistence economy was a broad-spectrum foraging economy (Ahn 1994;Ahn et al 2015;Kim 2010).…”

“…Isotopes analyses on human bones that postdate the introduction of millets also clearly indicate that Chulmun people depended heavily on sea resources and wild plants Bae et al 2013;Choy and Richards 2010). Even setting aside the issue of whether or not the presence of millets in archaeological features clearly indicates that millets were both cultivated and consumed, these lines of evidence suggest that millet cultivation during the Chulmun Period was not a major subsistence strategy but only an auxiliary activity that was added to the existing hunter-gatherer-fisher economy, possibly for the purpose of diversifying resources (Ahn et al 2015;Kim 2010).…”

“…After the introduction of millets, both the size of settlements and the number of houses decrease, as shown in the summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates from houses, and this declining trend continues towards the end of the Chulmun Period (Figure 1). Some researchers have interpreted this change as reflecting population decline or an increase in the mobility of Chulmun hunter-gatherers, which would have probably resulted in lower visibility of archaeological sites (Ahn et al 2015;Lim 2012). Although the cause of this change is not yet clear, it strongly suggests that the introduction of millet around 3500 BCE did not lead to a transition to a farming economy.…”