Under the direction of Dr. Carla Sinopoli, Ji Rachel Lee will examine how incipient rank affected households in Mumun Period (1780-350 cal. B.C.) Korea. Salvage excavations in the last 20 years have uncovered some of Korea's earliest villages, but the development of sociopolitical complexity in Korea is just beginning to be understood. Significant changes occurred during the Mumun Period, including a shift to intensive agriculture, an increase in craft production, and more elaborate burials, leading scholars to conclude that social inequality had developed by the Middle Mumun Period (850-540 cal. B.C.). Changes in pithouses also occurred, namely the transition from long, rectangular houses to small, rounded houses, signaling a shift in household organization. However, no explanatory framework exists for Mumun households during this period of important sociopolitical developments. The Nam River Valley in south-central Korea is ideal for examining these issues, with the largest settlement, Daepyeong, yielding more than 300 Mumun pithouses. Through excavations, soil analysis, and spatial analysis, this project will evaluate whether incipient ranking initiated change or promoted continuity among households at Daepyeong and two smaller settlements - Pyeonggeo-dong and Chojeon-dong via three analytical spheres: household morphology, household activity, and household ideology.
The research will provide a unique look at how social inequality develops through the lens of one of the most enduring social formations -the household. Beyond just closing a data gap in the East Asian anthropological and archaeological record, this project will contribute research that is original by documenting the process of becoming unequal at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Household change and continuity through almost 1,000 years of Mumun Period occupation will be examined. Added to this temporal axis, I will also examine how incipient rank affected households from both elite and non-elite contexts. This project will thus provide multiple perspectives on household evolution - (1) before the emergence of rank, (2) after the emergence of rank, (3) elite contexts, (4) non-elite contexts, (5) large village settlement, and (6) small village settlement.
Through research partnerships with Korean cultural resource management companies, this project will provide training to Korean archaeologists in micromorphology and micro-artifact analysis, offering ways in which detailed household data can be obtained even within the context of fast-paced salvage archaeology. This project will also be instrumental in training Korean archaeologists in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), helping to facilitate a faster and more efficient way data can be stored and managed. Finally, household data from more than 300 pithouses will be organized in a GIS and shared with Korean archaeologists who are interested in Mumun Period household research.
