Neolithic Resource Use and Niche Construction on Jeju Island, Korea

Summary

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 been often interpreted as evidence for an increasing importance of edible flora and terrestrial games. This trend may link to worldwide transition to the broad-spectrum subsistence transition. Such a hypothesis has not been tested due to a lack of archaeobotanical studies in Jeju. Our project will investigate both macroscopic and microscopic plant remains in Neolithic sites on Jeju along the coast and uplands. We aim to compare resource utilization among the Korean mainlanders and Jeju islanders and to develop a model on diverse niche construction in Korean Neolithic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Island Archaeology in East Asian Perspectives   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15413