The Old Stone Age in Korea
In 1978 an American airman walking by the Hantan River picked up a hand axe that changed how the world saw early East Asia.
This course covers the longest stretch of Korean history, from the first people on the peninsula to the states of the early Iron Age. It begins long before writing, so almost everything we know comes from stones, bones, pottery and the ground they were buried in. Korean textbooks say that people began living on the peninsula and the land around it about 700,000 years ago. That first period, when people made tools by knocking flakes off stones, is called the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age.
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Living on the move
Paleolithic people did not farm. They hunted animals, caught fish and gathered fruit and roots, and they moved with the seasons to follow their food. Some lived in caves; others built simple shelters by rivers, which Korean archaeologists call makjip. Sites from this age have been found all over the peninsula, from Gulpo-ri in the far northeast to Seokjang-ri in Gongju in the south.
Their tools changed slowly. At first people used stones almost as they found them, then they learned to shape different chipped tools for different jobs: heavy choppers, pointed tools, scrapers for hides. These are called tteonseokgi, chipped stone tools, to set them apart from the ground and polished tools of the next age.
| Tool | Made by | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Hand axe | Flaking both faces of a stone | Butchering, working hides, wood and bone |
| Chopper | Flaking one edge | Chopping wood and bone |
| Scraper | Small sharp flake | Cleaning hides |
The hand axe from Jeongok-ri
The find mattered far beyond Korea. Since the 1940s a theory by the Harvard archaeologist Hallam Movius had divided the Old Stone Age world in two: Africa, Europe and western Asia with hand axes, and East Asia with only simple choppers. Hand axes from Jeongok-ri did not fit that line, and the theory began to be questioned.
How long is 692,000 years?
The 3D timeline uses rounded model coordinates of 700,000 BCE and 8000 BCE for the Paleolithic band, a span of 692,000 model years. These are display coordinates, not an exact calendar conversion of about 700,000 years ago. The following spans and percentages describe this simplified model. The whole line, up to 330 CE, covers about 700,330 years, so the Old Stone Age takes 98.81 percent of it. Everything else in this course, from the first pottery to the states of Samhan, fits into the remaining 1.19 percent. Picture the line as a 100-metre running track: the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and Gojoseon would all be squeezed into the last 1.19 metres. That is why the timeline starts with a squeezed scale, and why the Real length switch is worth pressing once.
| Tteonseokgi | Chipped stone tools |
| Jumeok-dokki | Hand axe shaped on both faces |
| Makjip | Simple shelter by a river |
| Jeongok-ri | Yeoncheon site with Acheulean hand axes, found 1978 |
| Seokjang-ri | Paleolithic site in Gongju |
- Textbooks date the first people on and around the peninsula to about 700,000 years ago.
- Paleolithic people hunted, fished and gathered, and moved with the seasons.
- They lived in caves or riverside shelters and made chipped stone tools.
- Hand axes found at Jeongok-ri in 1978 challenged the Movius theory; the site's age is still debated.
- What kind of tools did Paleolithic people make?
- Chipped stone tools
- Polished stone tools
- Bronze daggers
- Iron ploughs
- How did Paleolithic people get food?
- Hunting, fishing and gathering
- Growing rice
- Raising cattle in villages
- Trading with China
- Where did they live?
- Caves and simple riverside shelters
- Pit houses in farming villages
- Walled towns
- Wooden palaces
- In which year was the hand axe at Jeongok-ri first found?
- Who first found the Jeongok-ri hand axe?
- An American airman, Greg Bowen
- A farmer ploughing his field
- A Japanese survey team
- A school class on a trip
- Which idea did the Jeongok-ri hand axes call into question?
- That East Asia had only choppers, not hand axes
- That people first lived in Africa
- That rice came from China
- That bronze came before stone
- How old is the Jeongok-ri site?
- Still debated: about 300,000 or about 40,000 years
- Exactly 700,000 years
- About 5,000 years
- About 2,000 years
- Jeongok-ri was found in 1978 and, by the Korea Heritage Service record, named historic site no. 268 in 1979. How many years later?
- Which site is in Gongju?
- Seokjang-ri
- Jeongok-ri
- Amsa-dong
- Gosan-ri
- Put these in order, oldest first.
Sources for this course (10)
- 국사편찬위원회 우리역사넷 (contents.history.go.kr): 중학교 국사 7차 「구석기 시대와 신석기 시대」, 중학교 국사 6차 「고조선의 성립과 발전」, 고등학교 국사 6차(상) 「고조선의 건국」「여러 나라의 성장」, 고등학교 국사 7차 「단군과 고조선」, 신편 한국사 3권 「청동기시대의 시기구분」, 한국사 연대기 「연천 전곡리 유적」「제주 고산리 유적」「비파형동검」「동국통감」, 한국문화사 27권 「신석기시대와 청동기시대의 농경」, 우리 역사 깊이 읽기 「『삼국유사』 단군 신화의 검토」「단군 신화를 이해하는 몇 가지 논점들」
- 한국민족문화대백과사전 (encykorea.aks.ac.kr): 연천 전곡리 유적, 서울 암사동 유적, 제주 고산리 유적, 철기시대
- 문화체육관광부·문화포털 「고창·화순·강화 고인돌유적」(mcst.go.kr, 세계유산 2000년 12월, 약 3만 기)
- 국립중앙박물관 (museum.go.kr) 소장 비파형동검·빗살무늬토기 (우리역사넷 이미지 출처 표기)
- World dates on the 3D timeline come from the edubun world-history courses (The Met, British Museum, Britannica)
- Where sources disagree: start of the Neolithic (textbook about 8000 BCE; Gosan-ri about 10,000 years ago)
- start of the Bronze Age (textbook 2000 to 1500 BCE; 신편 한국사 about 1000 BCE)
- start of the Iron Age (older textbooks 5th century BCE; 한국민족문화대백과 Early Iron Age about 300 BCE to the turn of the era, or to 100 BCE)
- the age of Jeongok-ri (300,000 to 200,000 years vs about 40,000 years)
- and the founding of Gojoseon (2333 BCE is the traditional date; 우리역사넷 notes a Bronze Age state cannot be placed before about the 12th century BCE).
Checked: 2026-10-17