Prehistoric Korea and Early State Formation
What this domain tests
Prehistoric Korea and Early State Formation covers the shift from hunting-gathering to farming, pottery sequences, megalithic tombs, and the first proto-states. Questions ask you to place artifacts and polities in order, not just recall names.
Core sequence
- Paleolithic: stone tools, caves and open sites, hunting and gathering; no farming.
- Neolithic: early farming, sedentary villages, Jeulmun (comb-pattern) pottery.
- Bronze Age: Mumun (undecorated) pottery, dolmens, increased warfare and chiefdoms.
- Iron Age: iron tools, Chinese commanderies, and consolidation of proto-states.
Early states
Gojoseon is remembered through the Dangun foundation myth and the "eight prohibitions" law; its historicity is debated. Buyeo, Goguryeo, Okjeo, Dongye, and the Samhan appear in Chinese and Korean records. The Samhan - Mahan, Jinhan, Byeonhan - are confederacies, not the later Three Kingdoms. In 108 BCE the Han dynasty established Lelang commandery, a key date for early exchange and conflict.
Worked example
A site has Jeulmun pottery in a lower layer and Mumun pottery plus a dolmen above it. Reason: Jeulmun means Neolithic; Mumun and dolmens mean Bronze Age. So the lower layer is earlier. If iron tools appear with Mumun in the upper layer, place the occupation at late Bronze to early Iron Age, not Paleolithic.
Traps
- Do not treat the Dangun myth as a contemporary written record.
- Do not equate Samhan with Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla.
- "First state" questions often hinge on Gojoseon, but archaeological evidence is separate from legend.
- Pottery type is a dating clue, not an ethnic label.