Evidence of human movements and exchange seen from curated obsidian artifacts on the Korean Peninsula

Abstract

We report the analysis by LA-ICP-MS of 204 obsidian artifacts obtained from museum archives in the Republic of Korea. They were recovered at Bronze Age, Neolithic and Paleolithic sites, with some of the excavations dating back to the 1920s. For the Paleolithic sites, most samples utilise the ‘Paektusan’ source located in the region of Mount Paektu in DPR Korea. However, for the Sinhwari site we find the obsidian originates from sources on Kyushu Island, Japan, which is of considerable interest since this is only the second reported case of Japanese obsidian at a Paleolithic site on the Korean Peninsula. Ours is the first comprehensive provenance study for Neolithic obsidians from archaeological sites on the Korean Peninsula. We find that obsidian from Neolithic settlements on the southern coast of Korea also originates from sources on Kyushu Island; while some rare artifacts from inland sites correspond with the Paektusan source. Additionally, we identify three new geochemical groups and sub-groups of the Paektusan obsidian on top of the existing three classes that have been recognised.