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The Korean early Late Paleolithic revisited: a view from Galsanri

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Abstract

The Early to Late Paleolithic transition in eastern Asia is a topic receiving increasing attention in paleoanthropology. Here, we present the findings from Galsanri, an early Late Paleolithic open-air site that dates to the latter part of marine isotope stage 3 in South Korea. Findings from Galsanri suggest the Early to Late Paleolithic behavioral transition was unlikely to have been the result of a simple mass dispersal event from western Eurasia into eastern Asia. The Galsanri lithic assemblage includes typical Early Paleolithic core and flake tools in the same context as Late Paleolithic blades produced on low-quality raw materials and ground stone tools. The implications of the Galsanri findings are discussed in their broader behavioral contexts.

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Notes

  1. It has recently been suggested that paleoanthropologists are overstating the importance of these so-called “modern” human behaviors (see Shea 2011).

  2. In fact, it should not be too surprising that these various records do not present the same picture (Lieberman and Bar-Yosef 2005).

  3. For example, the site Janghungri (Layer 1), one of the uncalibrated dates (the oldest one), shows 24,400 ± 600 B.P. (Choi et al. 2001). When calibrating using OxCal 4.1 based on the IntCal09 curve (95.4 %) (https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/oxcal/OxCal.html), the result is 28,700 ± 1224 cal B.P.

  4. Uncalibrated older data from Haga (Layer 1) is 19,700 ± 300 B.P. (Lee et al. 2008) (calibrated one is 23,705 ± 722 cal B.P.) and early AMS date from Jiphyeon is 20,150 ± 100 B.P. (Chang 2007; Park and Seo 2004) and calculated to 24,218 ± 268 cal B P.

  5. An ideal example is the site Hopyeongdong (Layer 2) and Sinbuk (single cultural horizon) (Hong and Kim 2008; MCU 2008). The AMS results from Sinbuk are widely varied, from 18,500 ± 300 B.P. to 23,850 ± 160 B.P., converted to 22,365 ± 709 cal B.P. and 27,968 ± 332 cal B.P. Hopyeongdong also applied multiple AMS dating; the 19 samples range between 18,500 ± 300 B.P. and 23,540 ± 150 B. P, calculated to 19,546 ± 195 cal B.P. and 27,676 ± 236 cal B.P.

  6. The combined lithic traits in a single (contemporary) deposit are often found in Korea (see Table 1). For example, each horizon from Seokjangri, Sinbuk, and Wolpyeong yields various degrees of lithic complexities which are normally attributed to temporally different cultural periods (see the artifacts from Wolpyeong on Nos. 1 to 7 in Figure 7).

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Honam Cultural Property Research Center, Korea, for their continued support of this research. We would like to express thanks to Min Young Bok and Elisabetta Gliozzo. We are also grateful to the anonymous constructive comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. We take full responsibility for any errors that may be present.

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  1. Department Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea

    Hyeong Woo Lee

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way 346 Saunders Hall, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Christopher J. Bae

  3. Honam Cultural Property Research Center, 872-1, Gigokri, Damyangkun, Jeollanamdo, South Korea

    Changseung Lee

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Lee, H.W., Bae, C.J. & Lee, C. The Korean early Late Paleolithic revisited: a view from Galsanri. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 9, 843–863 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-015-0301-0

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