This study focuses on the personal ornaments and odd implements from Neolithic Korea. The discussions related to those artifacts have been insufficient so far. For ornaments, I have examined shell bracelets, stone necklace pendants, hoop style earring...
This study focuses on the personal ornaments and odd implements from Neolithic Korea. The discussions related to those artifacts have been insufficient so far. For ornaments, I have examined shell bracelets, stone necklace pendants, hoop style earrings, clay earrings, and ornaments made from bones, animal teeth, and fish bones. On the other hand, for miscellaneous or odd implements, I have analyzed clay figurines, bone sculptures, carving on the pottery, and carved clay board. First, I classified them with typological method and considered their spatiotemporal aspects.
As a result, personal ornaments and odd implements were classified into three temporal phases and also divided into three different regions. PhaseⅠincludes Incipient and Early Neolithic, phase Ⅱ comprehends Middle and Late Neolithic, and Ⅲ shares time period with Terminal Neolithic. The three different regions are southeastern coastal region, west-central regions, and northeastern region.
Moving from phase Ⅰ to Ⅱ, based on the inter-regional network, shell bracelet expands its territory from southeastern coastal region to entire peninsula. The central place for stone necklace shifts from southern part of the peninsula to west-central region. The phase change also includes distinctive transition of earrings in both shape and material; from stone hoop style earring to clay earring.
For odd implements, the change from phase Ⅰ to Ⅱ shows variation in both shapes and kinds of animal clay figurines. The expressions of the motifs of animals become simpler, and smaller animals become dominant subject matters.
Transition from phase Ⅱ to Ⅲ shows disappearance of personal ornaments. Shell bracelet, once flourished around the entire peninsula, ceases to exist. Odd implements also start to disappear, except for the shell mask in southeastern coastal region.
If we consider spatial distribution, the central place for the production and the usage of personal ornaments as well as odd implements is southeastern coastal region, which indicates these people favored those items. On the other hand, west-central region did not show many of those artifacts in terms of both variety and numbers. Northeastern region often made personal ornaments using bones and teeth of animals. We can also observe stone necklace. Though the patterns of odd implements in this region are not clear, one may notice the existence of both human and animal type figurines.
Summing up, personal ornaments and odd implements are tightly linked to each other. The group who favored those decorative ornaments was also accustomed to odd implements that were usually related to religious ceremonies. The distinctive regional differences between southeastern coastal areas and west-central localities are comparable with existing classification based on potteries and ordinary stone artifacts. Based on the results of the study, the author was able to present total nine illustrations that show installation and usage of these ornaments and implements over different time periods and regions.
The reasons for these transition and change in ornaments and implements that we can observe are different from phase to phase. Firstly, the change from phase Ⅰ to Ⅱ was likely to be driven by regional interconnections between southeastern areas and west-central localities. These networks broaden the sphere of shell bracelets. The stabilization of subsistence strategies based on wider resource utilization and introduction of initial plant cultivation could be other causes. The simpler depiction of motifs of animal figurines in phase Ⅱ reflects the change in recognition of hunting due to the introduction of plant cultivation.
Transition from phase Ⅱ to Ⅲ reflects the emergence of new residential life style. From the Terminal Neolithic, the climate became cold and chilly. To cope this environmental fluctuation, Neolithic peoples reduced the size of their group and this caused increase in mobility. Since the ornaments and implements were usually related to authority and religious ceremony that differentiate the possessor from others, the unstabilized resource and smaller group size might decreased the necessity of these artifacts.