Archaeological Site in Gosan-ri, Jeju

Basic information

Designation

Historic Site No.412

Category

유적지

Era

후기구석기시대 ~ 초기신석기시대

Designated year

1998

Location

제주시, 제주특별자치도— 제주 제주시 한경면 고산리 3628번지

Coordinates

33.304545, 126.166893

This early Neolithic archaeological site at a coastal terrace facing the Suwolbong tuff ring is quite extensive in area. With the beginning of primitive agriculture, coupled with livestock farming, in the Neolithic period, man started living a sedentary life, which constituted an important turning point in the history of human civilization. Items found at this archaeological site include close to 99,000 stone tools and implements and 1,000 pottery fragments. Some of the pottery shards identified at this site are of a highly unusual type of primitive fibroid pottery with a distinct reddish brown color, known as “Gosan-ri-type pottery.” Based on surviving items from this period, this appears to be an early pottery made by late Paleolithic hunter-gather groups who were otherwise still mostly makers of stone tools. This archaeological site, highly illuminating for the understanding of the transition between the late Paleolithic and the early Neolithic period in the Korean peninsula, is also invaluable for research into the Northeast Asian Neolithic as a whole.

Location