Shell Mound in Dongsam-dong, Busan is located on the west coast of Yeong-do Island in Dongsam-dong,

Yeongdo District Yeongdo District is a ''Subdivisions of South Korea, gu'' in Busan, South Korea. The ''gu'' itself is limited to Yeong-do (''Yeong Island'') located on the south edge of central Busan. It attained the status of ''gu'' in 1957. The Korea Maritim ...

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. This

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

consists of a

midden 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 ecofact ...

of shells of various

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

taxa that were discarded in a relatively small or restricted area by people who lived there in 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 ...

.Tongsamdong. In ''The Penguin Archaeology Guide'', pp. 450-451. Penguin, New York, 2001.Busan Museum. ''Dongsam-dong Paechong Jeonsigwan Jeonsi Dorok''. Busan Museum, Busan, 2002. It was excavated three times by archaeologists of the National Museum of Korea from 1969 and was found to be the among oldest Jeulmun middens so far discovered 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 ...

. The presence of Yunggimun (appliqué-pattern) pottery indicates the site was occupied for a time between 8000-7000 BC, but many absolute dates generated from carbon that was excavated from the site indicate the site was also occupied in the Middle (c. 3500 BC) and Late (c. 2000 BC) Jeulmun sub-periods.Busan Museum 2002. A variety of artifacts, including three types of pottery (patternless, comb-patterned, and appliqué patterned), and tools made of bone and stone were uncovered. Artifacts and features from Dongsam-dong provide insight into the way the people of the area lived as well as into the cultural trends of the times. The excavated remains have also proved to be valuable for estimating both the influences of

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

n culture on Korea and prehistoric exchange between southern Korea and

Kyushu 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 surroun ...

, Japan.

References

{{Coord, 35, 04, 16, N, 129, 04, 47, E, region:KR_type:city_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Geography of Busan History of South Korea Archaeological sites in South Korea Culture of Busan Shell middens Yeongdo District

See also

References