Review of portable rod-shaped stones in the Neolithic period

Abstract

This study aims to examine the characteristics of the archaeological contexts and change of portable rod-shaped stone artifacts from the Neolithic period in the central and southern regions of Korean peninsula and to review the possibility that they functioned as ritual tools. Reflecting the characteristics of stone tools that do not change rapidly or diversely, I classified them into two major categories: stones corresponding to the wide-mouthed pottery group and stones corresponding to the round-bottomed pottery group. I examined their shapes and excavation contexts and attempted to reveal their changes. Portable rod-shaped stones corresponding to the wide-mouthed pottery group are characterized by a planar shape surface that is rod-shaped and a cross-section shape that is round or rectangular. They are often found in mountainous sites, tombs, and shell mounds. Portable stones corresponding to the round-bottomed pottery group show an increase in quantity compared to stones corresponding to the wide-mouthed pottery group, and a change in which flat stones with rectangular cross-sections appear. There is also a change in which the proportion of stones excavated from residential sites increases. This reflects the major trends of social change in the Korean Neolithic period, and it can also be seen that the direction of change is closer to that of Bronze Age stones. On the other hand, by focusing on stones excavated from tombs and mountainous sites, I clarified through analysis of corresponding axes that these stones were attributed to the wide-mouthed pottery period. I also suggested that rod-shaped stones and stone axes may have been a set of ritual tools. Although limited to the wide-mouthed pottery group, it is significant that I were able to restore one aspect of ritual behavior in the Korean Neolithic period through portable rod-shaped stones.