Beyond Activity Areas, Beyond Burial Spaces: Islands as a Monumental Place for Coastal Foragers

Summary

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 just resource patches. We have to shift our view of islands fundamentally—not just as a materialistic "space" for resource exploitation or burials but as an empirical "places" for rituals, memories, living activities and so on for foragers. In doing so, islands acquired meaning of "spaceness" of their own, which can be connected with monumental characteristics of islands. Islands are monumental places for coastal foragers of Korean Chulmun period and economic, ritual practices, including resource exploitation and burial making, all of which enhanced the "spaceness" of islands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15721