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1.

Paleolithic
[edit]

Korean earthenware jar with comb pattern; made 4000 BC, Amsa-
dong, Seoul, now in British Museum
No fossil proven to be Homo erectus has been found in the Korean Peninsula,[22] though
a candidate has been reported.[2] Tool-making artifacts from the Paleolithic period have
been found in present-day North Hamgyong, South Pyongan, Gyeonggi, and north and
south Chungcheong provinces,[23] which dates the Paleolithic Age to half a million years
ago,[5] though it may have begun as late as 400,000 years ago[1] or as early as 600,000–
700,000 years ago.[2][3]

2. Neolithic
[edit]
Main articles: Jeulmun pottery period and Mumun pottery period
The earliest known Korean pottery dates back to around 8000 BC,[24] and evidence
of Mesolithic Pit–Comb Ware culture (or Yunggimun pottery) is found throughout the
peninsula, such as in Jeju Island. Jeulmun pottery, or "comb-pattern pottery", is found
after 7000 BC, and is concentrated at sites in west-central regions of the Korean
Peninsula, where a number of prehistoric settlements, such as Amsa-dong, existed.
Jeulmun pottery bears basic design and form similarities to that of Mongolia,
the Amur and Songhua river basins of Manchuria, the Jōmon culture in Japan, and
the Baiyue in Southern China and Southeast Asia.[25][26]

Archaeological evidence demonstrates that agricultural societies and the earliest forms
of social-political complexity emerged in the Mumun pottery period (c. 1500–300 BC).[27]

People in southern Korea adopted intensive dry-field and paddy-field agriculture with a
multitude of crops in the Early Mumun Period (1500–850 BC). The first societies led by
big-men or chiefs emerged in the Middle Mumun (850–550 BC), and the first
ostentatious elite burials can be traced to the Late Mumun (c. 550–300 BC). Bronze
production began in the Middle Mumun and became increasingly important in
ceremonial and political society after 700 BC. Archeological evidence from Songguk-
ri, Daepyeong, Igeum-dong, and elsewhere indicate that the Mumun era was the first in
which chiefdoms rose, expanded, and collapsed. The increasing presence of long-
distance trade, an increase in local conflicts, and the introduction of bronze and iron
metallurgy are trends denoting the end of the Mumun around 300 BC.[27]

In addition, 73 tombs similar to the ones found in Japan, estimated to date back to
Gojoseon (100 BC), have been found in the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, and
the discovery of jar burials, suggest a close relationship with Japan,[28] and Gojoseon,
proving that Gojoseon and Yayoi period Japan maintained close relations with one
another even during the ancient times.

3. Bronze Age
[edit]
The Bronze Age in Korea is often held to have begun around 900–800 BC,[5] though the
transition to the Bronze Age may have begun as far back as 2300 BC.[6] Bronze
daggers, mirrors, jewelry, and weaponry have been found, as well as evidence of
walled-town polities. Rice, red beans, soybeans and millet were cultivated, and
rectangular pit-houses and increasingly larger dolmen burial sites are found throughout
the peninsula.[29] Contemporaneous records suggest that Gojoseon transitioned from a
feudal federation of walled cities into a centralised kingdom at least before the 4th-
century BC.[30] It is believed that by the 4th century BC, iron culture was developing in
Korea by northern influence via today's Russia's Maritime Province.[31][32]

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