Jeomtodae-potteries are divided into circular ones and triangle one according to the section forms of the bands attached to their rims; and their existence duration was in general from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, when a unique culture w...
Jeomtodae-potteries are divided into circular ones and triangle one according to the section forms of the bands attached to their rims; and their existence duration was in general from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, when a unique culture was formed.
Research on Jeomtodae-potteries was concentrated on the chronology issues regarding the changes of the potteries themselves, and it was not until recent years that research has been locally carried out on tombs. In particular, as for research on the Honam region, the process of the expansion and spread of Jeomtodae-potteries in the region is yet to be fully known, as research on the Jeonbuk area is being made mainly on the Mangyeong River Basin while little research is being made on the Jeonnam area, focused on the Youngsan River Basin.
This study sought to examine type-based graves (identified in the Honam region) from the era of Jeomtodae-potteries, their changing aspects in the region, and their locations by investigating from a macroscopic view point their structural properties and the forms of other exhumed relics. For this purpose, the study tried to determine the characteristics of the clay stripe pottery era in the Homan region by classifying the types of the tombs and investigating aspects of the combination of exhumed relics, and types of buried relics.
The Homan region can be classified by its water systems into 4 subregions (the Mangyeong River Basin, the Youngsan River Basin, the West Coast region, and the South Coast region), and has different cultural aspects of tombs from region to region.
As time went by, tombs were build in varying forms such as dolmens, stone-lid tombs, piled-stone wooden-coffin tombs. wooden-coffin tombs, jar-coffin tombs, and fosse-girded tombs with their regional different forms. The Mangyeong River Basin, as the first area to accept the clay stripe pottery culture in the Honam region, suffered its dolmen society to get out of existence, and instead saw wooden-coffin tombs prospering in its middle and upper region; and it is now rich in relics of prototypical Jeomtodae-potteries. On the contrary, the Youngsan River Basin is the region where dolmens were used for a longer period; and though the proportion of wooden coffin tombs is not so great, jar-coffin tombs made of triangle Jeomtodae-potteries are heavily concentrated in its middle and upper region. The West Coast region has a smaller number of relics compared to other regions, but occupies an important position from which process of clay stripe pottery culture can be surveyed. The South Coast region, as the area where dolmens were used for the longest period in the Homan region, had the latest use of clay stripe pottery culture; but it is the area where the convergence of inside and outside culture is witnessed.
The period of the tombs are classified into 4 stages. Stage Ⅰ, stretching from the mid 4th century B.C to the mid 3rd century B.C, saw clay stripe pottery culture arising in the Homan region. Stage Ⅱ, stretching from the mid 3rd century B.C. to the early 2nd century B.C, witnessed the culture spreading around the Mangyeong River Basin; and it was the time when tombs and relics formed their patterns. Stage Ⅲ, stretching from the early to the late 2nd century B.C was the time when clay stripe pottery culture reached its culmination, and when ironware together with various relics emerged. Stage Ⅳ, stretching from the 1st century B.C to the 1st century A.D, saw Jeomtodae-potteries disappearing and surviving only as triangle ones which were produced as jar-coffin tombs.
As examined above, tombs from the clay stripe pottery era in the Homan region were changed in their forms as time went by; and the forms of buried relics are also found to vary according to the types of tombs. In addition, Jeomtodae-potteries show very different aspects from region to region: different aspects are found in the adoption of clay stripe pottery culture and its period, due to the conflicts between indigenous force of dolmen society and outside force of clay stripe pottery society.