Fishing played an important role in prehistoric subsistence in Korea, which is evidenced by discoveries of various types of net sinkers from both inland and coastal Neolithic sites. Nevertheless, archaeological studies traditionally have focused on cu...
Fishing played an important role in prehistoric subsistence in Korea, which is evidenced by discoveries of various types of net sinkers from both inland and coastal Neolithic sites. Nevertheless, archaeological studies traditionally have focused on culture historical aspects and the present study represents a rare attempt of Neolithic subsistence patterns focusing on net sinkers.
Neolithic net sinkers were typically made from locally river pebbles. Two types of stone weights are recognized: one with notched edges on the both ends, and the other with polished groove across the surface. Collections of Neolithic net sinkers are dominated by the first type, while only a small number of the grooved types are found in limited areas.
Differences in artifact size are easily recognizable in terms of three regions. Inland net weights represent the smallest with length of 2-6 cm, width of 3-8 cm and weight of 20-60 g. Artifacts found from sites along the west coast are the largest averaging 150 to 1200 grams and 7 to 11 cm long, while those from eastern and southern coastal sites represent the medium size averaging 210 to 300 grams (4-10 cm long and 3-8 cm wide). The difference is most likely derived from the environmental differences of the three regions.
The present analysis shows that fishing activities using net weights appeared in the northern inland from the early Neolithic, around 4000 B.C., and subsequently spread into the central and southern inland and coastal areas in the middle Neolithic period. In the Late Neolithic, fishing using net weights considerably decreased in many areas except for the northern inland. The decline of fishing during the late Neolithic is likely to have been accelerated by the spread of agriculture.