• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.28-50
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• 2024

A fact-finding survey of the Demilitarized Zone can be said to be a very meaningful academic survey linked to previous index surveys of protected military areas and municipal and excavation surveys of ruins and military sites on Mount Dora. Not a few ruins were first discovered in this survey, and the locations, structures, and restoration artifacts of the previously investigated ruins were confirmed differently, raising the need for a detailed investigation. In particular, it is noteworthy that various relics from the Paleolithic Age to the Joseon Dynasty were recovered from relics dispersion sites such as Josan-ri and Cheorwon Gangseo-ri in Paju, and Hoengsan-ri Temple Site is also a Buddhist relic in the Demilitarized Zone. However, in the case of some graveyards and relics sites in the Paju region, it was an opportunity to understand the reality that they are not safe from cultivation and development, and the ruins of Cheorwon Capital Castle, Seongsanseong Fortress, Jorangjin Bastion, and Gangseo-ri Bastion were damaged during the construction of military facilities, and an urgent investigation is needed. Also, farmland and hilly areas around the ruins of Jangdan, Gunnae-myeon, and Gangsan-ri have not been properly investigated for buried cultural assets due to small-scale development. Therefore, it is an important time for the relevant authorities and agencies to cooperate more closely to establish special management and medium- to long-term investigation measures for the cultural heritage in the Demilitarized Zone based on the results of this fact-finding investigation.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.25-50
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• 1988

The survival of rich evidence of palaeolithic occupation found in the Imjin-Hant'an River basin was possible due to many fortuitous geological conditions provided there. Formation of the basalt plain in a narrow valley system which developed during the late Mesozoic insured the appearance of a basin of sedimentation in which archaeological sites would be preserved with relatively minor post-depositional disturbance. Geomagnetic and K-Ar dating indicates that lava flows occurred during the Brunes Normal Epoch. During and after the process of basin sedimentation, erosion of the plain was confined to the major channel of the present river system which developed along the structural joints formed by the lava flow. Due to characteristic columnar structure and platy cleavage of the basalt bedrock, erosion of the basalt bedrock occurred mainly in vertical direction, developing deep but narrow entrenched valleys cut into the bedrock. Consequently, the large portion of the site area remained intact. Cultural deposits formed on top of the basalt plain were left unmodified by later fluvial disturbances due to changes in the Hant'an River base-level, since they were formed about 20 to 40m above the modern floodplain. Sedimentological evidence of cultural deposits and palynological analysis of lacustrine bed formed in the tributary basin of the Hant'an River indicate that hominid occupation occurred in this basin under rapidly deteriorating climatic conditions. From three thermoluminescence dates, the timing of hominid occupation as represented by 'Acheulian-like' bifaces apparently occur sometime during 45,000 BP. Thus, deposition of cultural layers in this basin approximately coincides with the beginning of the second stadial of the final glacial, during which the Korean Peninsula must have had provided a sanctuary for prolonged human occupation.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.447-454
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• 1998

As a widespread tephra erupted 24 to 25 KA, Aira-Tn Ash, or AT, provides an invaluable datum for stratigraphic study of late Pleistocene in Northeast Asia. AT can be identified from their tonal characteristic and morphology (the so­called bubble-wail feature), as well as typical refractive index. First reported in 1983, its presence was confirmed from many palaeolithic deposits distributed throughout Korea. It forces us to reconsider the age of prominent Pleistocene deposits. At the famous archaeological site of Chon-gok-ni, presence of AT lends a firm support that sedimentation and deposition of lithic assemblage were in fact a late Upper Pleistocene event, thus, throwing a new question at archaeologists to explain why such archaic-looking tools were continued to be made. Discovery of AT at Chongdongjin is more surprising, since the coastal terrace has been regarded by many as an early Lower Pleistocene eustatic feature. It implies strongly that we need to devise a new scheme for Quaternary stratigraphy. In the absence of reliable datum and marker for Quaternary research, efforts must be given to search for and identify AT and other widespread tephras.