Beyond “Maritime”: New Approaches in Understanding Foodways of the Neolithic Coastal Dwellers in the Korean Peninsula during the Early-Middle Holocene

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Social and Environmental Interactions on Coasts and Islands in Korea" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study investigates the subsistence and foodways of Neolithic coastal foragers in the Korean Peninsula using an innovative method of organic chemistry. The Neolithic subsistence practice in the Korean peninsula is characterized as “maritime hunting-gathering-fishing.” Throughout the Neolithic period, people occupied islands and coastal regions, creating hundreds of shell middens. In coastal and island settings, subsistence studies rely heavily on shell middens because faunal remains are well preserved. This study aimed to provide new evidence related to prehistoric foodways by directly analyzing potsherds and sediments using organic residue analysis. The potsherds and sediments were collected from well-known Neolithic coastal and island sites located in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. Preliminary results suggest that Neolithic subsistence was more dynamic and varied than is posited by models focused on marine resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Social and Environmental Interactions on Coasts and Islands in Korea   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36467.0