Jeulmun pottery period

The Jeulmun Pottery Period is an archaeological era in Korean prehistory that dates to approximately 8000-1500 BC.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} It is named after the decorated pottery vessels that form a large part of the pottery assemblage consistently over the above period, especially 4000-2000 BC. Jeulmun (Hangul: 즐문, Hanja: 櫛文) means "Comb-patterned". A boom in the archaeological excavations of Jeulmun Period sites since the mid-1990s has increased knowledge about this important formative period in the prehistory of East Asia.

The Jeulmun is significant for the origins of plant cultivation and sedentary societies in the Korean peninsula.^[6][7][8] This period has sometimes been labelled as the "Korean Neolithic", but since intensive agriculture and evidence of European-style "Neolithic" lifestyle is sparse at best, such terminology is misleading.^[9]

The Jeulmun was a period of hunting, gathering, and small-scale cultivation of plants.^[10] Archaeologists sometimes refer to this life-style pattern as "broad-spectrum hunting-and-gathering".

Classic Jeulmun vessel with wide mouth, c. 3500 BC. From National Museum of Korea.

Korean earthenware vessel in the classic Jeulmun comb-pattern style. Various patterns cover the majority of the vessel surface. Ca. 4000 BC, Amsa-dong, Seoul.British Museum.

Map of Jeulmun Period archaeological sites mentioned in this text from southern Korea.