Shoda, Shinya orcid.org/0000-0001-9525-3710, Lucquin, Alexandre orcid.org/0000-0003-4892-6323, Ahn, Jae ho et al. (2 more authors) (2017) Pottery use by early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Korean peninsula closely linked with the exploitation of marine resources. Quaternary Science Reviews. pp. 164-173. ISSN 0277-3791
Abstract
The earliest pottery on the Korean peninsula dates to the early Holocene, notably later than other regions of East Asia, such as Japan, the Russian Far East and Southern China. To shed light on the function of such early Korean pottery and to understand the motivations for its adoption, organic residue analysis was conducted on pottery sherds and adhered surface deposit on the wall of pottery vessels (foodcrusts) excavated from the Sejuk shell midden (7.7–6.8ka calBP) on the southeastern coast and the Jukbyeon-ri site (7.9–6.9ka calBP) on the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula, that represents the earliest pottery assemblages with reliable radiocarbon dates. Through chemical and isotopic residue analysis, we conclude that the use of pottery at these sites was oriented towards marine resources, supported by lipid biomarkers typical of aquatic organisms and stable carbon isotope values that matched authentic marine reference fats. The findings contrast with other archaeological evidence, which shows that a wider range of available food resources were exploited. Therefore, we conclude pottery was used selectively for processing aquatic organisms perhaps including the rendering of aquatic oils for storage. Early pottery use in Korea is broadly similar to other prehistoric temperate hunter-gatherers, such as in Japan, northern Europe and northern America. However, it is also notable that elaborately decorated red burnished pottery excavated from isolated location at the Jukbyeon-ri site had a different usage pattern, which indicates that division of pottery use by vessel form was established even at this early stage.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Aquatic biomarkers,Ceramic vessels,Coastal adaptation,Eastern Asia,Lipid residue analysis,Specific-compound stable isotope analysis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (York) > Archaeology (York) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number AHRC AH/L00691X/1 |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 06 Jul 2017 12:15 |
Last Modified: | 16 Feb 2025 00:07 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.06.032 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.06.032 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:118721 |