Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Long-term Chronology of Subsistence and the Role of Intensive Rice Agriculture in the Central Part of the Prehistoric Korean Peninsula

自给自足，即小型传统社区中个人养活自己的能力，是当今世界许多地区的一个主要问题。在获得外部援助的可能性有限的许多地区，营养不良和饥饿是反复出现的问题。该项目利用考古背景，可以追踪随时间和气候变化的变化，以检查在特定情况下的工作过程。郭承基将在本杰明·马维克博士的指导下，对韩半岛中部3个主要内陆居住地——小沙洞、松国里、乙法里的陶器进行分析。该地区拥有蜿蜒河流的缓坡低山丘持续存在了4000年之久，在这种条件下发展起来的大型内陆居住地为本研究提供了多种生存数据。郭先生的研究将通过有机地球化学分析和对陶器碎片的发光测年来调查史前朝鲜半岛中部的生存策略。从采集者到农民的转变以及集约化水稻农业的作用一直是韩国考古学中最具争议的话题之一。然而，朝鲜半岛沉积物相对较高的酸度使得不可能直接检查动物/植物遗骸来追踪生存变化。因此，许多关于这种转变的研究严重依赖于沿海地区的贝壳贝壳，这些贝壳贝壳只反映了总体生存的一小部分。由于狩猎采集者和集约化稻农的严格划分，许多大型内陆居住地所记录的生存行为已经模糊不清。本研究的中心假设是，大约在3400 - 2000年前，随着水稻种植的出现，资源利用范围很广。这一假设与主流的基于水稻的模型形成了对比，后者认为3400年前气候驱动的集约化水稻农业是主要的生存策略。此次研究将提供一个独特的机会，通过直接检查史前韩国最广泛传播的物质文化——陶器，来了解主要内陆遗址的生存状况。有机地球化学分析将提供信息，以确定在锅中储存和烹饪的是什么，而发光测年将能够提供可靠的日期，直接表明陶器的制作时间。这些方法的结合将使我们获得一个关键的线索，以了解生存的复杂性和多样性随着时间的推移和集约化水稻种植的作用。这项研究将寻求在研究主题之外产生更广泛的影响。它将协助在机构一级为一般公众和年轻一代（K -12）建立关于古代生存的教育基础设施。考古日将在华盛顿大学伯克博物馆举行与该项目有关的公开讲座。其数据和结果将通过在线档案与公众共享。通过与国内研究机构的合作，将与韩国学者共享数据。调查结果将以韩文出版，以普通大众为对象，以年轻一代读者为目标。所有这些努力都将促进数据和结果的国际传播。最后，该项目将加强考古学和化学之间的合作，并帮助培养来自这两个不同背景的年轻科学家，他们将能够在考古有机地球化学方面创建一个强大的，创新的研究项目。

Subsistence self-sufficiency -- the ability of individuals in small traditional communities to feed themselves -- constitutes a major issue in many parts of the world today. In many regions where the potential for outside help is limited, malnutrition and starvation are recurring problems. This project utilizes an archaeological context, which can trace change over time and over climatic fluxuation, to examine the processes at work in one specific situation. Under the guidance of Dr. Benjamin Marwick, Seungki Kwak will analyze pottery collections from three major inland habitation sites in the central part of the Korean Peninsula: Sosa-Dong, Songguk-Ri, and Eupha-Ri. Low hills with gentle slopes embracing meandering rivers in this region were continuously occupied for as much as 4,000 years, and large inland habitation sites developed in this condition provide multiple lines of subsistence data that are required for this study. Mr. Kwak's research will investigate the subsistence strategy in the central part of the prehistoric Korean peninsula using organic geochemical analysis and luminescence dating on potsherds.The transition from foragers to farmers and the role of intensive rice agriculture have been among the most controversial subjects in Korean archaeology. However, the relatively high acidity of sediment in the Korean peninsula has made it impossible to examine faunal/floral remains directly for tracing the subsistence change. For this reason, many of the studies on the transition heavily relied on the shell middens in the coastal areas, which reflect only a small portion of the overall subsistence. The subsistence behaviors recorded in numerous large-scale inland habitation sites have been blurred by the strict dichotomy between hunter-gatherer and intensive rice farmer. The central hypothesis of this research is that there was a wide range of resource utilization along with rice farming around 3,400-2,000 BP. This hypothesis contrasts with prevailing rice-based models, where climatically driven intensive rice agriculture from 3,400 BP is thought to be the dominant subsistence strategy. The research will provide a unique opportunity to understand the subsistence in major inland sites through the direct examination of potteries: the most wide-spread material culture in the prehistoric Korea. Organic geochemical analyses will give information for identifying what was stored and cooked in the pots, and luminescence dating will be able to provide reliable dates that will directly indicate when the potteries were made. The combination of these methods will allow us to obtain a critical clue to understanding the complexity and variety of the subsistence over time and the role of the intensive rice farming.This research will seek to have a broader impact beyond the research topics presented. It will assist with building educational infrastructure about the ancient subsistence at the institutional level for both the general public and young generations (K -12). Public lectures related to the project will be provided on the archaeology day at the Burke Museum, University of Washington. Its data and results will be shared with the public through online archives. Through collaboration with the institutions in Korea, data will be shared with Korean scholars. The results will be published in Korean for the general public, and readers of young generations will be targeted. All of these efforts will promote international dissemination of the data and results. Lastly, this project will reinforce collaboration between archaeology and chemistry and help train the young scientists from those two different backgrounds who will be able to create a robust, innovative research program in archaeological organic geochemistry.