Some Japanese and Korean history from 4000-2000BC

Bangudae Petroglyphs, showing evidence of whaling

This is a post about Japanese and Korean history from 4000-2000BC. The reason I am covering two millennia rather than one is that the history of these places, while still interesting, has comparatively less happening than in Africa or Europe for example. I am not an expert on this time period at all and there is much that is still unknown and being discovered by archaeologists, but the broad outlines of what I will describe here should be mostly correct. This is a time before writing in this part of the world so the main sources will be entirely archaeological, but I may make some references to later myths and legends.

Jeulmun Pottery Vessel

In 4000BC in Korea the period known as Early Jeulmun was in place. This is named after the Korean word for the comb-patterned pottery vessels that were used by the hunter-gatherers in the region. While farming does not seem to have been used, the early inhabitants of Korea were nevertheless fairly sedentary, building pit houses that were roofed with a type of thatch. The reason that they were able to remain sedentary was because they seem to have relied heavily on fishing in the sea, allowing them to stay in one location without developing traditional agriculture. The Bangudae Petroglyphs, a series of rock carvings in southern Korea show evidence of whaling, perhaps the first whaling in the world, but it’s unclear exactly what date this should be ascribed to. Their pottery allowed them to store food and to keep it safe, while also allowing the weaker members of their society to eat soups that had been simmered slowly over fires, making digestion easier for those with weaker teeth and stomachs.

In Japan, the situation was very similar. Here the early Jomon culture, also named after the comb-patterned pots used by its people, was flourishing. Here again we see fairly sedentary hunter-gatherers who had used bows and arrows (possibly tipped with poison) to hunt deer while also spending much of their time fishing and gathering nuts and berries.

Jomon Pottery Vessel

In Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, to the north of Japan, there is evidence of hunter-gatherers at this time as well. It is presumed that they were related to the Jomon peoples but the harsher climates faced by these more northerly peoples limited their numbers. To the south, in the Ryukyu Islands, similar conditions prevailed, with the islands being inhabited by hunter-gatherers who relied primarily on gathering fish, especially shellfish, from the sea. The remains of the shellfish were deposited in large shell-middens that are very useful to archaeologists.

Around 3900 the site of Sannai-Maruyama on the northern end of the island of Honshu in Japan was occupied. The inhabitants of this site may have used it as a seasonal residence, spending time foraging for food through the summer and autumn months and bringing back the bounty of the seas and forests to be stored in underground storage pits while their families lived in permanent dwellings throughout the harsh Japanese winter.

Jeulmun era jade ornaments

Around 3500 the Middle Jeulmun period began in Korea. This period seems to have seen the development of low intensity agriculture. There are a number of sites that seem to show carbonized grains. To try and preserve grains many early cultures would subject them to high heat. If this was done wrongly it would burn the grains entirely and when these discarded grains are found, they can prove useful to later archaeologists as signs of possible cultivation. However, it’s not clear if these seeds were from agriculture or if the charred remains that have been found were from plants that had been gathered from the wild. The archaeology of Korea is also hampered by the fact that the peninsula is divided between North and South Korea and that the two countries conduct their archaeology in very different ways.

Insofar as I can tell not much happens for nearly the next thousand years. The ways of life of the Jeulmun and Jomon peoples were quite stable. There seems to have been little warfare, although if they used poisoned weapons the usual signs of warfare might not be as apparent to archaeologists. The only real difficulty that they faced was the possibility that their populations would outgrow the carrying capacity of their environment. This seems to have happened eventually but it is nevertheless a credit to these people and their cultures that they managed to maintain their way of life for so long.

Site of Sannai-Maruyama, reconstructed

Around the year 2600 the Jomon site of Sannai-Maruyama sees a major expansion, including a strange building that seems to have been comprised of six giant poles set into the ground. All that remains to us are the postholes so it’s unknown what the upper stories looked like but it may have been a temple, a watchtower or a place to store food above the ground. The expansion of this site shows that the population of Japan was probably rising considerably.

Around the year 2500 the Early Jomon Period is held to have come to an end and the Middle Jomon Period began. This period saw the pit-houses become larger and the pottery become ever more elaborate. Some unusual looking clay figurines were also created and may have functioned as ritual objects. I’m always a little wary of the word “ritual”. It is an uncontested fact that our ancestors were extremely religious and even superstitious compared to our modern beliefs today. But there is a tendency to use the phrase “ritual” or “religious” whenever archaeologists come across an item that they do not understand. Because there is no real way of disproving it, we should be careful when using it. But use it we do. These figurines, known as Dogu, seem to be covered with patterns, which may indicate tattooing among the Jomon peoples.

Reconstructed site of Sannai-Maruyama

Around 2300 the site of Sannai-Maruyama in northern Honshu seems to have been abandoned. Perhaps the land around it had been exhausted. The population expansion of the Middle Jomon must have placed pressure on the local ecosystems, but it is unclear why the site was abandoned.

Korean legends place the first emperor of Korea, Dangun Wanggeom, during this period. Supposedly he was the grandson of a bear who was born on Paektu Mountain in the north of Korea. This was held to be a sacred mountain and even today is held in reverence by the people in the region. North Korean official history suggests that Kim Jong-il was born there. Kim Jong-il also believed that Dangun was a historical figure and set his archaeologists to find his tomb. A tomb was duly found, but it is unlikely to be the tomb of Dangun. While the legends about Dangun are very interesting and shed much light on later Korean history, there is no direct evidence from this period for any state being founded. Perhaps this will change and I wanted to mention it here, but also to stress that for now, this is an entirely mythical episode.

Jomon Pottery Vessel

Around the year 2000 the Middle Jeulman Period ends in Korea and the Late Jeulmun period begins. The population seems to have reduced its reliance on gathering shellfish and begun low-level subsistence agriculture.

In Japan, in what is now the Akita Prefecture of northern Japan, the Ōyu Stone Circles began to be used. These were a number of circles of small stones (rather than megaliths such as those of Stonehenge). The two largest circles were 46 and 42 metres in diameter. Around the edges, there were a number of wooden buildings and further out, some rubbish heaps, which would suggest that large numbers of people gathered here. The stone circles are aligned so that certain larger standing stones mark the position of the sunset on the summer solstice, making this an ancient astronomical monument. The monument seems to have been in use for several centuries at least.

This brings our very cursory view of the history of Japan and Korea to a close. There is indeed less to speak about here than in other regions. But we can see that both areas have formed stable pre-agricultural societies that would be well-placed for the eventual transition to full agriculture.

One final note when discussing Japanese archaeology. Sometimes when viewing older literature on the Paleolithic in Asia one will see Japanese artefacts that are vastly older than anything else in that region of Asia. This is because an amateur archaeologist, Shinichi Fujimura, was systematically faking ancient finds from the 1970’s all the way until the year 2000. This was caught and exposed by a brilliant piece of investigative journalism by a Japanese newspaper and the dates were revised substantially. Most of this affects the older pre-Jomon period in Japan, but it has some bearing on the dates of the Jomon, particularly the earlier phases, before the time span of this blog. So, if you come across older articles on Japanese archaeology bear in mind that they may be affected by this fraud.

Related Blog Posts:
Some Japanese and Korean history from 4000-2000BC
Some Japanese and Korean history from 2000-1000BC
Some Japanese and Korean history from 1000-500BC