Some Aspects of the Comb-Pattern Pottery of Prehistoric Korea

Some Aspects of the Comb-Pattern Pottery of Prehistoric KoreaAuthor(s): Won-Yong KimSource: Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1962), pp. 42-50Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40315539 .

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Some Aspects of the Comb-Pattern Pottery of Prehistoric Korea*

WON-YONG KIM

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Typical comb-pattern pottery is made of sandy clay usually tempered with grit, mica, feldspar, asbestos, soapstone, shell, etc. Vessel shape is a simple V- or U-shaped pot with straight-up rim and pointed or rounded bottom (Figs, 1, 2). There are, however, vessels with flat bases although this occurs mainly in northeastern Korea. These are baked rather hard, yet they can be scratched with the finger nail. The color of clay ranges from whitish brown to sooty black. The thickness of the wall varies from 0.4 cm to over 1.0 cm, with 0.7 cm the predominant thickness throughout Korea. The coiling method is used and the edge of each clay-ring is beveled for better joining. The outer surface of a vessel is decorated with dots and straight lines executed with a piece of bone, shell or wood. Such a tool may have had a single point or a furcated end with up to eleven teeth. The decoration is done by incision, press- ing, rubbing, scratching, grooving and piercing. Although the designs are mainly of incised lines, the use of a comb- like tool in some cases can not be denied. The hollow bones of birds might have been a very effective implement for grooving or for stamping tiny circles.

The decorated zone is, in most cases, divided into two horizontal areas- the rim zone and the body zone. In typical examples, the rim zone is decorated with horizontal bands of slanting short lines or figure 8 patterns, or of dots and circles (Fig. 3). The body zone is decorated predominant- ly with the so-called herring-bone pattern (Fig. 3 top right, bottom right), the horizontal variety being most abundant. In applying the decoration, a potter starts from the rim zone and after finish- ing it he turns the pot upside down and starts

again from the bottom coming down toward the rim.1

Finally, in not a few cases, circular perfora- tions done by drilling after the vessel is baked are to be seen along rims (Fig. 3). These holes seem to have been intended for suspending the pot by strings rather than for strengthening a cracked area. A kind of net might have also been used to hold the vessel, as one example from the Amsari site bears a crude linear design which seems to be a representation of an actual net (Fig. 6, top right).

A total of more than sixty sites related to the comb-pattern pottery culture has been recorded. These sites are located very close to the coastline and rivers, in contrast to sites of the so-called "plain coarse pottery* which are more often found in the interior, where they are widespread.2

Ro Fujita once suggested that the Korean comb- pattern pottery is related to the comb wares of Siberia which are in turn related to East Baltic pottery (Fujita 1948b). Although Korean

1. There are enough decorated sherds to show clearly such a sequence of execution.

2. The plain coarse pottery is one of the two major pottery types of prehistoric Korea. The pottery is characterized by its narrow flat bottoms and particularly by the presence of one or two horn-shaped handles. The clay is not sandy but clayey, tempered with a consid- erable amount of grit. Color ranges from yellowish brown to reddish brown.

Prof. Mikami has recently expressed his opinion that the comb pottery sites are not limited to water- side environments (Mikami 1959:318). However, the finds of this pottery around Seoul which he cites to support his sug- gestion are actually made at localities con- nected in some way with the Han river, and they can thus not be regarded as "inland* oc- currences.

$ Read at the Tenth Pacific Science Congress, Honolulu, 1961. (The author is Chairman of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea- Ed.)

42



KIM: SOME ASPECTS OF THE COMB-PATTERN POTTERY OF PREHISTORIC KOREA 43

comb-pattern pottery shows much localization in design, Fujita's theory seems to be generally ac- ceptable.3 The above-mentioned rim-zone decoration in Korean pottery is likely to have developed from a similar type of decoration that is observed in East Baltic comb pottery immediately around the rim (Fig. 4). One sherd which bears alternating bands of dots and lines very similar to classical East Baltic pottery was found in the Amsari site4 near Seoul (Fig. 5) In Korean pottery, dots and lines are not generally found in combination with each other on the same vessel. It would seem that Korean potters made separate use of the design elements, that is, the pit marks and slanting lines which appear in alternating bands on the East Baltic prototype.

Stone implements accompanying the comb- pattern pottery are limited both in quantity and variety. In northeastern Korea local obsidian is extensively used for arrowheads and other micro- lithic implements. However, there are discov- eries of polished stone axes as in the Yup'an site (Yokoyama 1934). On one western coast a characteristic pebble industry is noted at major comb-pottery sites such as Ch'ong-ho-ri (Ono 1937), Misari (Kim 1961), Amsari, etc. As shown in Fig. 13 (Misari) these are mostly thin ax- like unifacial flake tools made of a large pebble flake. At Amsari there are also polished stone axes made of sandstone and flat triangular arrowheads with prominent tangs made of slate. Stone querns consisting of a saddle -shaped stone and a long rubbing stone with semi-lunar section are a characteristic implement found at comb-pottery sites both in the northeast and on the west coast (Arimitsu 1953).

2. NORTHEAST COAST GROUP AND WEST COAST GROUP

S. Yokoyama once proposed that the comb- pattern pottery entered the Korean peninsula at the northeastern border and spread to the western

coast (Yokoyama 1933). The situation, however, seems to be the reverse.

Pottery from the Misari and Amsari sites on the west coast near Seoul seems tobe of the classic, mature type characterized by the presence of "rim" and "body" zones with carefully- executed designs of dots and lines. The clay is tempered with mica, asbestos, soapstone,5 etc. The walls are thicker than is the case with the northeastern pottery in general. The flat bottom scarcely ap- pears on the west coast. A concentric U- shape design consisting of dots on some of the Amsari sherds (Fig. 5) and on Sido Island pottery closely resembles a similar design6 on the Lin-hsi pottery from southwestern Manchuria (E gami et al 1934, iüus. on p. 406).

In northeastern Korea, the clay is tempered only with grit. Dots become elongated, showing the careless manner with which the designs are executed. Each stroke of the herring-bone pattern becomes shorter and lies apart from the others, the pattern looking almost like human foot prints (Fig. 7). The body is often left undecorated ex- cept the rim zone. Sometimes the rim zone is undecorated and a horizontal line separates it from the decorated body zone (Fig. 8). The presence of flaring rims and flat bottoms7 (even the indented ring-foot) (Fig. 9) may place this northeastern pottery later than west coast pottery from the viewpoint of stylistic evolution.

Some of the comb wares found in Mongolia and southern Manchuria closely resemble the west coast pottery of Korea (Torii 1916, Egami and Mizuno 1935). Saddle-shaped querns mentioned

3. S. Yokoyama is, however, opposed to Fujita's theory, and he refers to this pottery simply as the "decorated pottery" or "Type II pottery" of prehistoric Korea. His Type I is the plain pottery (Yokoyama 1939).

4. A site on the bank of the Han river opposite Seoul. The site was destroyed by a great flood

in 1925 which led to its discovery. A large quantity of potsherds and some stone implements, all from surface collections, are kept in the National Museum of Korea, A general survey of the finds by this writer will appear in the Korean Historical Review No. 17 (early 1962).

5. According to a personal communication from Dr. Ichiro Yawata of Tokyo University, who participated in the excavation of the Shang- Ma-shih shellmound at the tip of the Liaotung Peninsula, the comb pottery there was also tempered with soapstone.

6. This design, however, is made of raised clay bands (dotted) applied to the surface.

7. There is a possibility that the flat bottom of northeastern Korea is a result of contacts with similar pottery of the Amur region (cf . Chard 1958).



44 ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY 1,1 above are the typical stone implement of the Mongolian plateau (E gami and Mizuno 1935).

On Shang-ma-shih Island at the southern tip of the Liaotung Peninsula the comb-pattern pottery was found in the lowest layer, indicating that it was the earliest pottery in the area (Umehara 1944:330-331).

As was pointed out by Dr. Arimitsu, a prototype of the dot-filled band design similar to the so-called Suri-keshi design of Japanese Jomon pottery is found at the Yong-bon-ri site on the northwest coast (Arimitsu 1956). A more advanced type of the same design is frequently observed on pottery from the northeastern region (Fig. 10).

Under these circumstances, it is more likely that the comb-pattern pottery first entered northwestern Korea via southern Manchuria and spread into other regions, moving along the coastline.

The comb pottery of southeastern Korea, standing geographically in between the two areas mentioned above, has its own features in addition to elements from the two major groups. The pottery is noted for such advanced vessel forms as the spouted bowl, long-necked spherical pot, etc. It also has applied clay-band decoration over the familiar incised linear design (Yokoyama 1933, Oikawa 1933, Arimitsu 1936). The same idea of raised clay decoration can also be found on northeastern pottery.

3. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE "PLAIN COARSE POTTERY*

Several hundred sites with the plain coarse pottery are known throughout Korea. Yet none of them is definitely proven to be of purely Neolithic age. The pottery must have come from northern China and Manchuria, probably at the end of the Neolithic.

In most cases the comb pottery and the plain pottery are geographically separated.8 However, in some areas, the two coexist. In Chit'aptri on the northwest coast they were found in clearly stratified layers- the plain pottery on top and the comb pottery below.9 Further north at Ch'ongho-

ri near P'yong-yang, sherds of typical plain coarse pottery were found in the comb pottery layer (Kasahara 1936, Ono 1937). A similar case was also observed at the Yup'an site in northeastern Korea (Yokoyama 1934). Comb pottery sherds have also been found at Nabokri,10 Seoul (Kim 1947a) and Susok-ri,11 which are all typical plain pottery sites.

Our general view that the comb pottery is older than the plain pottery in actual date (Fujita 1948a, Arimitsu 1956) is well attested by the situation at Chit' apri mentioned above. However, the two wares coexisted in Korea for a certain period toward the end of the stone age. In some areas of mainland Korea the comb pottery disappeared completely as soon as it came into contact with the plain coarse pottery. In other isolated areas, however, comb pottery survived until the iron age (Fujita 1948b: 166).

4. RELATIONSHIP WITH PREHISTORIC JAPANESE POTTERY

Mr. S. Yamanouchi, a renowned Jomon pottery specialist, once suggested a possibility of influ- ence from Siberian and Korean comb-pattern wares on the earliest Japanese Jomon pottery (Yamanouchi 1939). This problem may yet require study in the future. However, a direct connection seems to exist between Korean comb pottery of the west coast and the Sobata pottery, an early Jomon pottery type in Kyushu. The Sobata pottery, which is tempered with soapstone, is mostly pointed based, decorated with a linear design (Fig. 11) and associated with tools made from pebbles similar to those of the Amsari and Misari sites.12 The Sobata pottery is found along the coastline of Kyushu as well as adjoining islets such as Oki Island (Kagamiyama et al 1958). Oki

8. According to Prof. Fujita, the two wares are clearly separated from each other even in a circumscribed area like northeastern Korea (Fujita 1948a: 81).

9. The discovery was made in 1957 by the north Koreans. A detailed report is not yet avail-

able. Present information is based on a survey article, * Progress of Korean Archeology" in Munhwa Yumul (Cultural Remains), April 1960, pp. 1-27. P'yong-yang (in Korean).

10. Unpublished single sherd in the National Museum of Korea.

11. Based on my own excavations in May 1961. The site also revealed a kind of black pottery which is certainly the easternmost variety of the Lungshan Black pottery of China.

12. We are indebted for this information to Prof. N. Kokubu who recently excavated a Sobata pottery site in southern Kyushu.




lies only 90 miles from the southern tip of the Korean peninsula.

Korean comb-pattern pottery also seems to have some relationship with Japanese early Yayoi pottery. Heijiru Nakayama once suggested that the Onggagawa pottery, which is the earliest Yayoi pottery in northern Kyushu, is derived from Korean comb-pattern pottery (Nakayama 1932). Yamamoto and Goto took the same stand (Yama- moto 1935, Goto 1934:517-518). The Yazaki pottery of central Japan, also an early Yayoi ware, is strikingly similar to some developed Amsari pottery designs (Fig. 12) (Eto 1937).

The comb -pattern pottery people in the Korean coastal region must have moved into Kyushu (which lies only 130 miles away) and the adjoining islands and initiated the Sobata pottery. This southward spread of Korean comb pottery might have continued until the time of the beginning of Yayoi pottery in the same areas.

5. DATE OF THE COMB POTTERY IN KOREA

The upper limit of the date of Korean comb pottery may not go back beyond the third millennium B.C., if we consider the Korean pottery as an offspring of the East Baltic pottery the date of which is thought to be from around the end of the third millennium B.C. to ca. 1400 B.C. (Gimbutas 1956:181). In this connection, it is quite strange that the Sobata pottery of Kyushu can be dated to around 3000 B.C. by the C-14 method013 The dat- ing of the early Jümon period, to which this pottery belongs, should be re-examined, or else the Sobata pottery must have been misplaced.

In mainland Korea the classic-type comb pottery seems to have disappeared by the time of the arrival of metal, that is, around the fifth or sixth century B. C.,14 because typical comb pottery sites do not produce any metal objects or semi- lunar stone knives- a characteristic implement of the plain coarse pottery culture.

Li some sites, however, the pottery survived until the arrival of the Kimhae period15 which must date sometime around the beginning of the Christian era and the following few centuries (Kim 1957b). At Sido Island the comb pottery came to an abrupt end when the Kimhae pottery appeared.16

13. A date of 3145 + 400 B.C. was given to Moroiso pottery which is an early Jümon pottery type of central Japan, cf . Sekai Toji Zenshu, Vol. 1, Tokyo 1958, p. 171.

14. T. Mikami thinks the comb pottery had al- ready disappeared in northwestern Korea be- fore the arrival of the plain pottery culture from N. China prior to the Warring States Period (Mikami 1952).

15. The name is derived from the Kimhae shellmound located on the southeastern tip of Korea. The shellmound, excavated by Hamada and Umehara in 1920 (Hamada and Umehara 1920), belongs to the Korean early iron age. Kimhae pottery is baked very hard, wheel- made, and bears stamped checker or straw- mat- like patterns apparently resulting from the use of a paddle.

16. Based on my own excavations in 1958. Report in preparation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arimitsu, Kyoichi 1936 Chosen Fuzan-fu Eisen-cho no ichi

Kaizuka ni tsuite (On a Shell Mound at Yong-son-dong, Pusan, Korea). Jinruigaku Zasshi, Vol. 51, pp. 59-67. Tokyo.

1953 Chosen Sekki-jidai no Suri-usu (Neo- lithic Querns from Korea). Shirin (Journal of History, Kyoto University), Vol. 35, pp. 312-334. Kyoto.

1956 Chosen no Sekki-jidai Bunka (Stone Age Culture of Korea). Nihon Kokogaku Koza, Vol. 3, pp. 387-394. Tokyo: Kawaide Shobo.

Chard, Chester S. 1958 An Outline of the Prehistory of Siberia.

Part 1. The Pre-Metal Periods. South- western Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 14, pp. 1-33. Albuquerque.

Egami, N.; K. Komai and M. Goto 1934 Toyo Kokogaku (Archaeology of the Far

East). Tokyo: Heibon-sha.

Egami, N., and S. Mizuno 1935 Naimoko Chojo-chitai (Innermost Mon-

golia and the Regions of the Great Wall). Archaeologia Orientalis, Series B, Vol. 1. Tokyo and Kyoto.



46 ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY 1,1

Eto, Chimaki 1937 Suruga Yazaki Yayoi-shiki Iseki Chosa

Hokoku (Report on a Yayoi Site at Tazaki, Suruga). Kokogaku, Vol. 8, pp. 247-267. Tokyo.

Fujita, Ryosaku 1948a Chosen no Sekki-jidai (The Stone Age of

Korea). Chosen Kokogaku Kenkyu (Studies in Korean Archaeology). Kyoto: Takagiri Shoin. (Reprinted from Toyoshi Koza, No. 18. Tokyo, 1942)

1948b Kushime-monyo-doki no Bumpu (Dis- tribution of Comb-pattern Pottery). Ibid. (Reprinted from Seikyu Gakuso, No. 2, 1930)

Gimbutas, Marija 1956 The Prehistory of Eastern Europe.

Part 1. Mesolithic, Neolithic and Cop- per Age Cultures in Russia and the Baltic Area. American School of Pre- historic Research, Bulletin No. 20. Cambridge.

Goto, Morikazu 1934 Nihon Kokogaku (Japanese Archaeology).

Ih Egami, Komai and Goto 1934, pp. 453-632.

Hamada, K. and S. Umehara 1920 Taisho Kyu-nen-do Koseki Chosa

Hokoku (Annual Report of the Survey of Antiquities for the Year 1920). Seoul: Government General of Chosen.

Kagamiyama, Takeshi et al. 1958 Oki no Shima (Oki Island). Tokyo:

Munakata Jinja Kiseikai.

Kasahara, Ugan 1936 Kushimemon doki wo daseru Hokusen

Seikori Iseki ni tsuite (On the Ch'ongho- ri Site, Northern Korea, which Re- vealed Comb-pattern Pottery). Jinruigaku Zasshi, Vol. 51, pp. 183- 197, 256-267. Tokyo.

Kim, Won-Yong 1957a Sokki-sidae eui Seoul (Seoul in the

Stone Age). Hyangt'o Seoul, Vol. 1, pp. 34-49. Seoul.

1957b Kimhae p'ae-ch'ong yondae e tae-han Chae-komt'o (A Note on the Absolute Date of the Kimhae Shell Mound). Yoksa Hakbo (The Korean Historical Review), Vol. 9, pp. 107-112. Seoul.

1961 Kwangju Misari Zulmun T'ogi Yujok (A Comb-pattern Pottery Site at Misari, Kwangju). fid., Vol. 14, pp. 133-145.

Mikami, Tsuguo 1952 Chosen ni okeru Kushimemon-doki

syakai to Kwai-jin (The Comb Pottery Society in Korea and the Ye Tribe). Chosen Gakuho (Journal of the Academic Association of Koreanology in Japan), Vol. 3, pp. 23-52.

1959 Chosen ni okeru Yumon-doki no Bumpu to sono Hirogari ni tsuite (On the Dis- tribution and Circulation of "Decorated" Pottery in Korea), Ibid., Vol. 14, pp. 309-322.

Nakayama, Heijiro 1932 Fukuoka-chiho ni Bumpu seru Ni-keito

no Yayoi-shiki Doki ni tsuite (On the Two Types of Yayoi Pottery in the Fukuoka District). Kokogaku Zasshi, Vol. 22, pp. 329-356. Tokyo.

Oikawa, Tamijiro 1933 Minami Chosen Makino-shima Tosan-do

Kaizuka (The Tongsamdong Shell Mound at Yong-do, South Korea). Kokogaku, Vol. 4, pp. 139-148. Tokyo.

Ono, Tadaaki 1937 Chosen Taidoko-gan Kushimemon-doki

ni zuiban seru Sekki (Stone Implements Associated with Comb-pattern Pottery on the Taidonggang River, Korea). Ibid., Vol. 8, pp. 180-188.

Torii, Ryuzo 1916 Heian-nando, Kokaido Yushi Izen Iseki

Hokoku (Report on Prehistoric Sites in South P'yong-an and Hwang-hae Do Provinces, Korea). In Annual Report of the Survey of Antiquities for the Year 1916, pp. 767-859. Seoul: Government General of Chosen.

Umehara, Sueji 1944 Kantoshu Shizen Bunka Shoken (Pre-

historic Culture of the Liaotung Penin- sula). In Toa Kokogaku Ronko (Essays on Far Eastern Archaeology), pp. 322- 340. Kyoto: Hoshino Shoten.

Yamamoto, Hiroshi 1935 Nishi-nippon Yayoi-shiki Mondai

(Problems of the Yayoi Culture of




Western Japan). Kokogaku Zasshi, Vol. 25, pp. 585-617, 767-787. Tokyo.

Yamanouchi, Kiyoo 1939 Nihon Enko no Bunka (Ancient Culture

of Japan). Tokyo: Senshi Kokogakkai.

Yokoyama, Shozaburo 1933 Fuzan-fu Zetsueito Tosando Kaizuka

Kokoku (Report on the Tongsam-dong Shell Mound at Yong-do, Pusan). Shizengaku Zasshi, Vol. 5, pp. 1-49. Tokyo.

1934 Aburazaka Kaizuka ni tsuite (On the Yup'an Shell Mound). In Oda-sensei Shoju kinen Chosen Honshu (Essays on Korea Commemorating the Longevity of Professor Oda), pp. 1041-1073.

1939 Chosen no Shizen doki Kenkyu (Studies on Korean Prehistoric Pottery). In Jinruigaku Senshigaku Koza (Lectures on Anthropology and Prehistory), Vol. 9, Tokyo: Yuzankaku.

Seoul National University Seoul, Korea




Fig. 1. Height 26.5 cm, diameter 20 cm. Kwang-ryang- man, northwestern Korea. (Umehara card of Korean Ar- chaeology No. 2209)

Fig. 2. Height 22.7 cm, diameter 14.4 cm. Amsari site, west central Korea. (University Museum collection, Seoul National University)

Fig. 3. Sherds from Amsari, west central Korea.

Fig. 4. Sherds from northwestern Russia, (after Gimbutas 1956, plate 50)




Fig. 5. Sherds from Amsari, west central Korea.

Fig. 8. Designs on Sosura pottery, northeastern Korea.

Fig. 6. Designs on Amsari pottery. Fig. 9. Sherds from Wonsu-

dai, northeastern Korea.

Fig. 7. Sherds from Song- jin, northeastern Korea.

Fig. 10. Designs on Yup'an pottery, northeastern Korea.




Fig. 11. Sobata pottery, Jomon period of Japan. (Nihon Kokogaku Koza, Vol. 3:212. Tokyo, 1956)

Fig. 12. Designs on Yazaki pottery, Yayoi period of Japan, (after Eto 1937, fig. 3)

Fig. 13. Stone implements from Misari site, west central Korea. (Kim 1961, fig. 11)



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Some Aspects of the Comb-Pattern Pottery of Prehistoric Korea