Korean History › Prehistory
Paleolithic Korea
earliest sites perhaps 300,000+ years old (dating debated) – c. 10,000 BC· Event· Society, economy & people
Mostly agreedGood evidence; some details, dates or numbers uncertain.
Stone-tool-using hunter-gatherers lived on the Korean Peninsula for hundreds of thousands of years before pottery or farming.
See it on the Korean History map →What happened
During the Old Stone Age (구석기 시대), small bands hunted, fished and gathered across the peninsula with stone tools. Key sites include Seokjang-ri in Gongju, dug from 1964, and Jeongok-ri near the DMZ. Early tools were heavy hand axes and choppers; after about 40,000 years ago finer blades and stemmed spear points appear, probably made by modern humans. In the Ice Age the Yellow Sea was dry land joining Korea to China. The era ended as the climate warmed around 10,000 BC.
Why it matters
It shows people lived here far longer than any recorded state, and that early Korea was part of wider East Asian human movements.
How we know
Stone tools from many excavated sites, dated by soil layers, volcanic deposits and radiocarbon. Human bones are rare because Korea's acidic soils destroy most of them.
Still debated
When people first arrived, and who the earliest toolmakers were, archaic or modern humans, is unresolved; claimed dates run from about 100,000 to over 500,000 years ago.
Inside this (1)
Connections (2)
▸Jeongok-ri hand axes are evidence of Paleolithic KoreaMostly agreed
The connection
The Jeongok-ri hand axes are among the clearest proof that toolmakers lived on the peninsula deep in the Old Stone Age. Their two-sided Acheulean form ties early Korea to a tool tradition found from Africa to Europe, not a separate, simpler East Asian world.
When and how
Banks of the Hantan River, Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province; found by US airman Greg Bowen in 1978 and excavated by Korean archaeologists from 1979.
How sure are we?
Thousands of stone tools excavated in place within soil layers above ancient basalt lava flows.
Debates and open questions
How old the oldest tools are, from roughly 300,000 to well under 100,000 years, and who made them are still argued.
▸Paleolithic Korea was followed by Jeulmun (comb-pattern pottery) periodMostly agreed
The connection
As the Ice Age ended around 10,000 BC, rising seas flooded the Yellow Sea plain and forests spread. Hunter-gatherers adapted with pottery, polished stone tools and coastal fishing, the toolkit of the Jeulmun Neolithic. Whether the same people changed habits or newcomers arrived is unclear.
When and how
Across the peninsula, roughly 10,000–6000 BC; very early pottery at Gosan-ri on Jeju dates to about 10,000 BC.
How sure are we?
Layered sites show chipped stone tools giving way to pottery; radiocarbon dates and pollen records track the warming climate.
Debates and open questions
Many areas show a gap in sites between the two periods; whether population fell or the sites are simply missing is debated.