Researches have been conducted from various perspectives to identify the social aspects as bared in Songguk-ri type settlements. The hitherto studies revealed that the society of Songguk-ri had gradually been hierarchized in the complexifying process ...
Researches have been conducted from various perspectives to identify the social aspects as bared in Songguk-ri type settlements. The hitherto studies revealed that the society of Songguk-ri had gradually been hierarchized in the complexifying process of development. Since, however, every community has a different structure and scale of its own, it is necessary to examine the social background of what constitutes a settlement.
The present study was aimed at investigating the phenomenon of social complexification and its resulting hierarchizational process by researches of the settlements in Songguk-ri in the lower reach of the Geumgang and on the Mangyunggang river basin. First of all, attempts were made to distinguish the characteristic aspects of Songguk-ri culture during the middle Bronze Age. Next, the phenomenon of hierarchization was examined in consideration of the space in the settlement. Lastly, it was investigated how the social complexity was formed as a result of population density in the individual settlements.
It was discovered that the Songguk-ri type settlements expanded gradually in size and that there was distinct difference in composition of Songguk-ri type settlements between the central and neighboring communities. The representative settlements of such type were found in Songguk-ri, Buyeo in the downstream of the Geumgang and in Dongsan-dong, Jeonju on the Mangyunggang river basin. In the central settlements, public facilities and spaces for storage, ritual and burial were set up separately from the living spaces, and there were differences in composition of spaces with a focus on ritual facilities.
The facility for ritual was a common place for villagers and is believed to have been operated under a specific system which was supervised by a special or high class. It is thought that the class would have had the rights to make important decisions concerning the issues of forming the settlements.
It is regrettable, however, that it was not actually possible to give an account of a clear cause for with what background the social complexification had developed. In this paper, from estimating the population on the Mangyunggang river basin, it was assumed that the residents were concentrated on Dongsan-dong villages in the southern part of the Mangyunggang at the stage of circular Songguk-ri type residential area, compared to the previous age. This was because the society had been much more complicated, it is understood.
Although the emergence of complexification is linked to hierarchization, there seems little characteristic difference in location and distribution of small scale settlements between the small- and medium-sized residences and large-sized ones. On the other hand, large-sized residences were distributed around ritual facilities or plazas in the large-scale settlements, and slight distinction was found even in the residential groups. Such distinction seems to have reflected the hierarchical difference depending on complexification.
Lastly, viewed from the tombs, the grave goods could be seen to reflect the hierarchy since their existence itself demonstrates differentiation from other tombs. Furthermore, similar patterns have been verified around the central settlements. Lots of grave goods were excavated from every single tomb at the Songguk-ri relics in the downstream area of the Geumgang and the neighboring Nonsan Majeon-ri relics, Iksan Eoryang-ri and Muhyeong-ri relics. On the contrary, large-sized tomb clusters were not discovered on the Mangyunggang river basin and less amounts of grave goods were excavated from them compared to those unearthed in the downstream area of the Geumgang.
It is thus presumed that the Songguk-ri type settlements had lasted for a long period of time mainly in areas where farming was easy, and the social complexity could have developed as the population grew. It seems, however, that there was a difference in class according to the needs of the members in each settlement. In other words, there is a possibility that, in the case of central settlement, the social complexification developed to an advanced stage and the division between the upper and the common classes was clear thanks to large spaces and fast population growth. In particular, the settlements in Songguk-ri in the downstream of the Geumgang and in Dongsan-dong on the Mangyunggang river basin were the most complex central settlements among the Songguk-ri type ones, and the surrounding settlements are believed to have formed an organic network from each other.