Island Archaeology in East Asian Perspectives

DOCUMENT Citation Only Seungki Kwak.

This study attempts to understand ancient human subsistence using isotope analysis on the organic residues extracted from the archaeological potsherds collected from prehistoric coastal shell midden sites in the southern part of the Korean peninsula. In Korean archaeology, shell middens are useful for isotope analysis because they provide suitable condition in terms of organic preservation. To date, the subsistence of these prehistoric coastal and island dwellers remains poorly known. However,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sangtaek Lim.

Coastal foragers of southern Korean Chulmun period had actively exploited marine resources from the initial phase(6000~4500 B.C.E.), and they also have a complex network with groups of Japanese Kyushu Island from that times. Researchers usually have thought that islands served as economic patches for coastal foragers with large numbers of shell mounds. However, based on several burial sites recently excavated at some islands like gadeok, Yeondae, Yokji, we now need to reconsider islands as being...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chang-Hwa Kang.

Overseas exchanges are a key interest in Jeju archaeology as several sites there document intricate networks in early historical periods. The term "Tamra" is first appeared in the "Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdom, 1145)," and is widely believed to refer political entities in Jeju. In archaeology, "Tamra" often refers to the period from c. 200 BC to AD 1105, and if further divided into three phases. The Tamra Formation period (200 BC–AD 200) marks a population increase and increasing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gary Crawford.

Hokkaido, Japan is an island separate from the East Asian mainland and Honshu yet closely linked culturally to the rest of the Japanese archipelago. Hokkaido was never isolated entirely from the East Asian mainland either. This paper reviews several key events that relate to Hokkaido as an island with a distinct cultural history. As the contemporary home of an indigenous population, the Ainu, Hokkaido has played, and can continue to play, an important role in our understanding of cultural...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaishi Yamagiwa.

This study aims to discuss about the strategy of prehistoric human adaptation to the island environment, especially focus on the natural resource usage. I introduce the case of southern part of Ryukyu islands—the southwestern part of Japan archipelago, where the first long-term human settlement had occurred about 4,300 years ago. Prehistoric people in southern Ryukyu islands had a unique material culture (absence of pottery, use of giant clam shell adzes), which was dissimilar to the surrounding...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rory Walsh.

The inhabitants of Jeju island, Korea, maintained active trade routes with societies in the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese Archipelago, and mainland East Asia. These interactions are encoded in material culture, including imported pottery. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis provides high-resolution data on ceramic geochemistry that allows for differentiation among local Jeju clay sources, Peninsular clays, and those from farther afield. Samples from the earliest known pottery-bearing sites...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Bone. Habeom Kim.

Intensive archaeological research in Jeju Island, Korea conducted over last three decades have produced a rich set of spatial data on archaeological sites and feature distributions across the island. While these spatial data have high potential for improving archaeological understanding of past human activities, a systematic analysis of spatial data from Jeju has yet to be fully undertaken by archaeologists. In this study, we employ spatial analysis on high-resolution topographic data to enhance...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Geuntae Park.

Jeju Island, locating southwest from the mainland of Korea, documents the earliest Neolithic culture in Korea. The Neolithic period in Jeju can be divided into six phases (Incipient, Initial, Early, Middle, Late, Final). The Gosan-ri type pottery of the Incipient phase has been only identified in Jeju. From the Initial to Final phases, the applique, Youngseon-dong type, Bonggye-ri type, and double-rimmed types of pottery have been found in Jeju, parallel to the Neolithic development along the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hyunsoo Lee. Gyoung-Ah Lee.

One of the key subjects in island archaeology is how islanders adapted to isolated environments and sustained with local resource. Jeju Island sites reveal Early Holocene Neolithic settlements, dating 2,000 years prior to any of Neolithic sites in the Korean mainland. Accordingly, Jeju Island offers an opportunity to understand any shift in subsistence strategies amid the changing Early Holocene environments. A sudden appearance of arrowheads and grinding slabs in the Early Holocene Jeju has...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jae Won Ko.

Paleolithic sties in Jeju Island have been found in the Quaternary sediment layers that are related to volcanic activities. Accordingly, research has been closely related to the geological investigation on sediment formation and volcanic activities. This presentation focuses on two Paleolithic sites, Oeododong along the north coast and Sangsugae cave along the south coast. The Oedodong site contains choppers and is dated to 32,000 BP; the Sangsugae cave site represents the Terminal Pleistocene,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yingxi Jin.

The Liaodong Peninsula was a hub that documented interactions across distinctive Neolithic cultures in northerneastern China and the northern Korean Peninsula. The Neolithic sites in Liaodong were neighbors with the Liao River (Liaohe) culture to its north; located across the Yellow Sea from the Huanghe culture; and were adjacent to the Chulmun Neolithic culture in Korea across the Yalu River. Thus Liaodong is a key region to understanding cultural interactions throughout the Neolithic period in...