The Mumun pottery period is an
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
era in
Korean prehistory that dates to approximately 1500-300 BC.
This period is named after the Korean name for undecorated or plain cooking and storage vessels that form a large part of the
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
assemblage over the entire length of the period, but especially 850-550 BC.
The Mumun period is known for the origins of
intensive agriculture
Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of ag ...
and complex societies in both the
Korean Peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
and the
Japanese Archipelago
The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chin ...
.
This period or parts of it have sometimes been labelled as the "Korean
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
", after
Thomsen's 19th century
three-age system
The three-age system is the periodization of human pre-history (with some overlap into the historical periods in a few regions) into three time-periods: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age; although the concept may also refer to o ...
classification of human prehistory. However, the application of such terminology in the Korean case is misleading since local bronze production did not occur until approximately the late 8th century BC at the earliest, bronze artifacts are rare, and the distribution of bronze is highly regionalized until after 300 BC.
A boom in the archaeological excavations of Mumun Period sites since the mid-1990s has recently increased collective knowledge about this formative period in the prehistory of
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
.
The Mumun period is preceded by the
Jeulmun Pottery Period
The Jeulmun pottery period is an archaeological era in Korean prehistory broadly spanning the period of 8000–1500 BC. This period subsumes the Mesolithic and Neolithic cultural stages in Korea,Choe and Bale 2002 lasting ca. 8000–350 ...
(c. 8000-1500 BC). The Jeulmun was a period of hunting, gathering, and small-scale cultivation of plants.
The origins of the Mumun Period are not well known, but the
megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
The ...
ic burials, Mumun pottery, and large settlements found in the
Liao River
The Liao River () is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in China. Its name derived from the Liao region, a historical name for southern Manchuria, from which the Liaoning province, Liaodong P ...
Basin and
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
c. 1800-1500 probably indicate the origins of the Mumun Period of Southern Korea.
Slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
cultivators who used Mumun pottery displaced people using Jeulmun Period subsistence patterns.
Chronology
Early Mumun
The Early (or Formative) Mumun (c. 1500-850 BC) is characterized by
shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cul ...
, fishing, hunting, and discrete settlements with rectangular semi-subterranean pit-houses. The social scale of Early Mumun societies was egalitarian in nature, but the latter part of this period is characterized by increasing intra-settlement competition and perhaps the presence of part-time "big-man" leadership.
Early Mumun settlements are relatively concentrated in the river valleys formed by tributaries of the
Geum River
The Geumgang River is located in South Korea. It is a major river that originates in Jangsu-eup, North Jeolla Province. It flows northward through North Jeolla and North Chungcheong Provinces and then changes direction in the vicinity of Greater ...
in West-central Korea. However, one of the largest Early Mumun settlements, Eoeun (
Hangeul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The ...
: 어은), is located in the Middle Nam River valley in South-central Korea. In the latter Early Mumun, large settlements composed of many
long-houses such as Baekseok-dong (Hangeul: 백석동) appeared in the area of modern
Cheonan City, Chungcheong Nam-do.
Important long-term traditions related to Mumun ceremonial and mortuary systems originated in this sub-period. These traditions include the construction of
megalithic burials, the production of red-burnished pottery, and production of polished groundstone daggers.
Middle Mumun
![Korea-Bronze](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Korea-Bronze.age-Jinju-Pot-01.jpg)
The Middle (or Classic) Mumun (c. 850-550 BC) is characterized by intensive agriculture, as evidenced by the large and expansive dry-field remains (c. 32,500 square metres) recovered at
Daepyeong
Daepyeong is a complex prehistoric archaeological site located in the Nam River valley near Jinju in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Pottery typologies and seriations and a host of AMS radiocarbon dates show that the site had a number ...
, a sprawling settlement with several multiple ditch enclosures, hundreds of pit-houses, specialized production, and evidence of the presence of incipient elites and social competition.
A number of wet-field features have been excavated in southern Korea, indicating that
paddy field
A paddy field is a flooded field (agriculture), field of arable land used for growing Aquatic plant, semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in sout ...
rice-farming was also practiced.
![Orim-dongmegalithpetroglyph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Orim-dongmegalithpetroglyph.jpg)
Burials dating to the latter part of the Middle Mumun (c. 700-550 BC) contain a few high status mortuary offerings such as bronze artifacts. Bronze production probably began around this time in Southern Korea. Other high status burials contain greenstone (or
jade
Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...
) ornaments.
A number of megalithic burials with deep shaft interments, substantial 'pavements' of rounded cobblestone, and prestige artifacts such as bronze daggers, jade, and red-burnished vessels were built in the vicinity of the southern coast in the Late Middle Mumun. High status megalithic burials and large raised-floor buildings at the Deokcheon-ni (Hangeul: 덕천리) and
Igeum-dong site
Igeum-dong is a complex archaeological site located in Igeum-dong, Samcheonpo in Sacheon-si, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. This prehistoric archaeological site is important in Korean prehistory because it represents solid evidence that ...
s in Gyeongsang Nam-do provide further evidence of the growth of social inequality and the existence of polities that were organized in ways that appear to be similar to simple "
chiefdoms
A chiefdom is a form of hierarchical political organization in non-industrial societies usually based on kinship, and in which formal leadership is monopolized by the legitimate senior members of select families or 'houses'. These elites form a ...
".
Korean archaeologists sometimes refer to Middle Mumun culture as ''
Songguk-ri
Songguk-ri () is a Middle and Late Mumun-period (c. 850–300 B.C.) archaeological site in Buyeo-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. Songguk-ri is a settlement and burial site that is important in the study of Korean prehistory. It is register ...
'' Culture (Hanja: 松菊里 文化; Hangeul: 송국리 문화).
Co-occurring artifacts and features that are grouped together as Songguk-ri Culture are found in settlement sites in the
Hoseo
Hoseo (; literally "west of the lake") is a region coinciding with the former Chungcheong Province in what is now South Korea. Today, the term refers to Daejeon, Sejong City, South Chungcheong and North Chungcheong Provinces. Hoseo people use Chu ...
and
Honam regions of southeast Korea, but Songguk-ri Culture settlements are also found in western Yeongnam. Excavations have also revealed Songguk-ri settlements in the Ulsan and Gimhae areas. In 2005 archaeologists uncovered Songguk-ri Culture pit-houses at a site deep in the interior of
Gangwon Province. The ultimate geographic reach of Songguk-ri Culture appears to have been
Jeju Island and western
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
Mumun culture is the beginning of a long-term tradition of rice-farming in Korea that links Mumun Culture with the present day, but evidence from the Early and Middle Mumun suggests that, although
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
was grown, it was not the dominant crop.
During the Mumun people grew
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
s,
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...
,
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
, legumes, and continued to hunt and fish.
Late Mumun
The Late (or Post-classic) Mumun (550-300 BC) is characterized by increasing conflict, fortified hilltop settlements, and a concentration of population in the southern coastal area. A Late Mumun occupation was found at the Namsan settlement, located on the top of a hill 100 m above sea level in modern
Changwon
Changwon () is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, on the southeast coast of South Korea. With a population of 1.07 million , Changwon is South Korea's ninth-most populous city.
A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south ...
City, Gyeongsang Nam-do. A shellmidden (
shellmound
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and eco ...
) was found in the vicinity of Namsan, indicating that, in addition to agriculture, shellfish exploitation was part of the Late Mumun subsistence system in some areas. Pit-houses at Namsan were located inside a ring-ditch that is some 4.2 m deep and 10 m in width. Why would such a formidable ring-ditch, so massive in size, have been necessary? One possible answer is intergroup conflict. Archaeologists propose that the Late Mumun was a period of conflict between groups of people.
The number of settlements in the Late Mumun is much lower than in the previous sub-period. This indicates that populations were reorganized and settlement was probably more concentrated in a smaller number of larger settlements. There are a number of reasons why this could have occurred. There are some indications that conflict increased or climatic change led to crop failures.
Notably, according to the traditional
Yayoi
The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.
Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...
chronological sequence, Mumun-esque settlements appeared in Northern
Kyūshū
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...
(
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
) during the Late Mumun. The Mumun period ends when iron appeared in the archaeological record along with pit-houses that had interior composite hearth-ovens reminiscent of the historic period (''
agungi
An ''agungi'' ( ko, 아궁이) is a firebox found in traditional Korean kitchens which is used to burn firewood or other fuel for cooking. It is also a part of the traditional floor heating system, or ondol. The flat cooktop counter or hearth in ...
'').
Some scholars suggest that the Mumun pottery period should be extended to 0 BC because of the presence of an undecorated ware that was popular between 400 BC and 0 BC called ''jeomtodae'' (). However, bronze became very important in ceremonial and elite life from 300 BC. Additionally, iron tools are increasingly found in Southern Korea after 300 BC. These factors clearly differentiate the time period 300 BC - 0 from the cultural, technological, and social scale that was present in the Mumun pottery period. The unequal presence of bronze and iron in increased amounts from a few high status graves after 300 BC as sets this time apart from the Mumun pottery period. It is thus that, as a cultural-technical period, the Mumun was finished by approximately 300 BC.
From about 300 BC, bronze objects became the most valued prestige mortuary goods, but iron objects were traded and then produced in the
Korean peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
at that time. The Late Mumun-Early
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
Neuk-do Island Shellmidden Site yielded a small number of iron objects,
Lelang
The Lelang Commandery was a commandery of the Han dynasty established after it had conquered Wiman Joseon in 108 BC and lasted until Goguryeo conquered it in 313. The Lelang Commandery extended the rule of the Four Commanderies of Han as far so ...
and
Yayoi
The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.
Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...
pottery, and other evidence showing that beginning in the Late Mumun, local societies were drawn into closer economic and political contact with the societies of the Late
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...
, Final
Jōmon, and Early
Yayoi
The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.
Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...
.
Mumun cultural traits
As an
archaeological culture
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...
, the Mumun is composed of the following elements:
Languages
According to
Juha Janhunen
Juha Janhunen (born 12 February 1952 in Pori, Finland) is a Finnish linguist whose wide interests include Uralic and Mongolic languages. Since 1994 he has been Professor in East Asian studies at the University of Helsinki. He has done fieldwork o ...
and
Alexander Vovin
Alexander (Sasha) Vladimirovich Vovin (russian: Александр Владимирович Вовин; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Ad ...
,
Japonic languages
Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan, sometimes also Japanic, is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and ...
were spoken in parts of the
Korean Peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
before they were replaced by
Koreanic
Koreanic is a small language family consisting of the Korean language, Korean and Jeju language, Jeju languages. The latter is often described as a dialect of Korean, but is distinct enough to be considered a separate language. Alexander Vovin s ...
speakers.
[Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean". ''Korean Linguistics''. 15 (2): 222–240.] Whitman (2012) suggests that the proto-Koreans arrived in the southern part of the
Korean Peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
at around 300 BC and coexist with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.
Subsistence
* Broad-spectrum subsistence was practiced through the Early Mumun. That is to say, evidence excavated from pit-houses and other outdoor
household
A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...
features indicates that hunting, fishing, and
foraging
Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's Fitness (biology), fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Optimal foraging theory, Foraging theory is a branch of behaviora ...
was occurring in addition to agriculture.
*
stone tools used in agricultural subsistence activities are common and include semi-lunar blades.
* Intensive wet-field agriculture (paddy farming) was in place in the Middle Mumun.
However, even the pit-houses of settlements associated with wet-field archaeological features show evidence that people were also engaged to some degree in hunting and fishing.
Settlement
* Large rectangular-shaped
pit-houses were used in Early Mumun. These pit-houses had one or more hearths, and pit-houses with up to 6 hearths indicate that such features were the living spaces for multiple generations of the same household.
* Some time after 900 BC, small pit-houses were the norm. The plan-shape of these pit-houses are square, circular and oval. They do not have interior
hearth
A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a lo ...
s — instead, the central area of the pit-house floor is equipped with a shallow oval 'work-pit'.
* Archaeologists see this change in
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
as a social shift in the household. Namely, the tight and multi-generational unit housed under one roof in the Early Mumun changed fundamentally into households formed of groups of semi-independent
nuclear family
A nuclear family, elementary family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the larger ...
units in separate pit-houses.
* The average settlement in the Mumun was small, but settlements with as many as several hundred pit-houses emerged in the Middle Mumun.
Economy
* Household production was the basic mode of the Mumun economy, but specialized craft production and a big-man-style redistributive prestige economy emerged in the Middle Mumun.
* Archaeological evidence has documented cases in which it appears that surplus production of crops, stone tools, and pottery occurred in the Middle Mumun.
* Artifacts that illustrate regional redistributive systems and exchange include greenstone ornaments, bronze objects, and some kinds of red-burnished pottery.
Mortuary practices
* Megalithic burials, stone-cist burials, and jar burials are found.
* Some burials in the latter part of the Middle Mumun are especially large and required a significant amount of labour to construct. A small number of Middle Mumun burials contain prestige/ceremonial artifacts such as bronze, greenstone, groundstone daggers, and red-burnished ware.
See also
*
List of archaeological periods
The names for archaeological periods in the list of archaeological periods vary enormously from region to region. This is a list of the main divisions by continent and region. Dating also varies considerably and those given are broad approximations ...
- master list
*
Prehistoric Korea
Prehistoric Korea is the era of human existence in the Korean Peninsula for which written records do not exist. It nonetheless constitutes the greatest segment of the Korean past and is the major object of study in the disciplines of archaeology, ...
*
Liaoning bronze dagger culture
The Liaoning bronze dagger culture or Lute-shaped bronze dagger culture is the provisional designation of an archeological complex of the Bronze Age in Manchuria and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Its classification is controversial. Wh ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Paper on Boseong River excavations, by Kim Gyeongtaek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mumun Pottery Period
Archaeological cultures of East Asia
Bronze Age cultures of Asia
Archaeological cultures in Korea
Ancient pottery
2nd-millennium BC establishments
4th-century BC disestablishments