Jeulmun Pottery Period: Comb-Pattern Pottery of Prehistoric Korea

The Jeulmun pottery period, from about 8000 to 1500 BC, is the Neolithic period of Korea, named after its distinctive pottery decorated with comb-like patterns. During these six and a half millennia, communities of fishers, hunters and gatherers settled in villages along coasts and rivers and, in the later stages, began to grow millet. The period laid the foundations for the farming societies of later Korean history.

The name and the pottery

Jeulmun means “comb pattern” in Korean. Potters decorated the outer surface of vessels with rows of short slanting lines, dots and herringbone motifs made by pressing or dragging a comb-like tool through the wet clay. The classic Jeulmun vessel, found especially in the Han River area, is a tall jar with a pointed or rounded base, which could be set into sand or ash.

Not all Jeulmun pottery has comb decoration. The earliest pots are plain or decorated with raised clay strips, and styles differed between regions. Archaeologists therefore use the name for the whole period rather than for a single pottery type.

Phases of the period

The oldest pottery in Korea comes from Gosan-ri on Jeju Island, dated to around 8000 BC or slightly earlier. It is a crude ware tempered with plant fibres, made by people who still used stone tools similar to those of the late Ice Age.

In the early phase, roughly 6000 to 4500 BC, pottery with raised appliqué decoration was common in the south-east, at sites such as Ubong-ri and Dongsam-dong near Busan. The classic comb-pattern style spread widely from about 4500 to 3500 BC, with the Han River basin around modern Seoul as a major centre.

The middle and late phases, roughly 3500 to 1500 BC, saw the style spread across most of the peninsula, regional variations multiply and decoration gradually become simpler.

Villages and daily life

Jeulmun people lived in semi-subterranean pit houses, round or squarish, with a central hearth and a roof supported by wooden posts. Villages were usually small, with a few to a few dozen houses, placed on river terraces or near the coast.

The best-known settlement is Amsa-dong in Seoul, on the south bank of the Han River. Its remains were exposed by a flood in 1925 and excavated in the 1960s and 1970s, revealing many pit houses and large numbers of comb-pattern pots. Today it is a protected historic site with a museum and reconstructed dwellings, and it remains the best place for visitors to see how Neolithic people in Korea lived and worked.

Fishing, shellfish and foraging

The sea and rivers were central to Jeulmun life. Large shell middens, mounds of discarded shells, food remains and broken tools, are found along the southern and western coasts. The midden at Dongsam-dong in Busan contains shells, fish bones, bones of sea mammals and fishing gear such as hooks and net sinkers.

People also hunted deer and wild boar and gathered plants, especially acorns, which were stored and processed with grinding stones. Dugout canoes found at Bibong-ri in Changnyeong, dated to around 6000 BC, show that boats were in use early in the period.

Contacts across the sea existed too. Obsidian from Kyushu and pottery related to the Jōmon culture of Japan have been found at sites near Busan, showing exchange across the Korea Strait.

The beginnings of farming

From around 3500 BC, charred grains of foxtail and broomcorn millet appear at Jeulmun sites, along with stone hoes and grinding tools. These crops had been domesticated earlier in northern China, where millet farmers of the Yangshao culture were already well established.

Millet cultivation in Korea seems to have supplemented fishing and foraging rather than replacing them. Full dependence on farming came later. In the middle phase, some inland villages grew larger and more numerous, which many archaeologists link to this new food source, while coastal communities continued to rely heavily on the sea.

Transition to the Mumun period

Around 1500 BC Jeulmun pottery was replaced by undecorated Mumun (“without pattern”) pottery. The Mumun period brought intensive rice and dry-field farming, larger villages, polished stone tools and, later, bronze. Whether this change was driven mainly by migration from the north or by local development is still debated.

Timeline

• c. 8000 BC: Early fibre-tempered pottery is made at Gosan-ri on Jeju Island.
• c. 6000 BC: Dugout canoes are in use at Bibong-ri; appliqué-decorated pottery spreads in the south-east.
• c. 4500–3500 BC: Classic comb-pattern pottery flourishes, including at Amsa-dong.
• c. 3500 BC: Millet cultivation appears in Korea.
• c. 1500 BC: The Jeulmun period gives way to the Mumun period.
• 1925: A flood of the Han River exposes the Amsa-dong site.

Why it matters

The Jeulmun period shows how people in Korea moved from mobile foraging to settled village life over thousands of years, using pottery, the sea’s resources and finally crops. Its comb-pattern jars remain the best-known symbol of Korean prehistory.