Editing History of Korea (section)

==Prehistory==
{{Main|Prehistoric Korea}}

===Paleolithic===
[[File:KoreanEarthenwareJar4000BCEAmsa-DongNearSeoul.jpg|upright=0.8|thumb|Korean earthenware jar with comb pattern; made 4000 BC, [[Amsa-dong]], [[Seoul]], now in [[British Museum]]]]

No fossil proven to be [[Homo erectus]] has been found in the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]],<ref>[http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo/homo_2.htm Early Human Evolution: Homo ergaster and erectus] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219092405/http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo/homo_2.htm |date=2007-12-19 }}. Anthro.palomar.edu. Retrieved on 2013-07-12.</ref> though a candidate has been reported.<ref name="Norton" /> Tool-making artifacts from the [[Paleolithic]] period have been found in present-day [[North Hamgyong Province|North Hamgyong]], [[South Pyongan Province|South Pyongan]], [[Gyeonggi Province|Gyeonggi]], and north and south [[Chungcheong Province|Chungcheong]] provinces,{{sfn|Lee|Park|Yoon|2005|pp=8–12}} which dates the Paleolithic Age to half a million years ago,<ref name="Connor" /> though it may have begun as late as 400,000 years ago<ref name="Eckert" /> or as early as 600,000–700,000 years ago.<ref name="Norton" /><ref name="Sin" />

===Neolithic===
{{Main|Jeulmun pottery period|Mumun pottery period}}

The earliest known [[Korean pottery and porcelain|Korean pottery]] dates back to around 8000 BC,<ref name="Choe and Bale">[https://www.academia.edu/798598 Chong Pil Choe, Martin T. Bale, "Current Perspectives on Settlement, Subsistence, and Cultivation in Prehistoric Korea"], (2002), ''Arctic Anthropology'', 39: 1–2, pp. 95–121.</ref> and evidence of [[Mesolithic]] [[Comb Ceramic culture|Pit–Comb Ware culture]] (or [[Yunggimun pottery]]) is found throughout the peninsula, such as in [[Jeju Island]]. [[Jeulmun pottery period|Jeulmun pottery]], or "comb-pattern pottery", is found after 7000 BC, and is concentrated at sites in west-central regions of the Korean Peninsula, where a number of prehistoric settlements, such as [[Amsa-dong]], existed. Jeulmun pottery bears basic design and form similarities to that of [[Mongolia]], the [[Amur]] and [[Songhua River|Songhua]] river basins of [[Manchuria]], the [[Jōmon period|Jōmon]] culture in Japan, and the [[Baiyue]] in [[Northern and southern China|Southern China]] and [[Southeast Asia]].{{sfn|Stark|2005|p=137}}{{sfn|Lee|Park|Yoon|2005|pp=23–26}}

Archaeological evidence demonstrates that agricultural societies and the earliest forms of social-political complexity emerged in the [[Mumun pottery period]] (c. 1500–300 BC).{{sfn|Nelson|1993|pp=110–116}}

People in southern Korea adopted intensive dry-field and [[Paddy field|paddy-field]] agriculture with a multitude of crops in the Early Mumun Period (1500–850 BC). The first societies led by big-men or chiefs emerged in the Middle Mumun (850–550 BC), and the first ostentatious elite burials can be traced to the Late Mumun (c. 550–300 BC). Bronze production began in the Middle Mumun and became increasingly important in ceremonial and political society after 700 BC. Archeological evidence from [[Songguk-ri]], [[Daepyeong]], [[Igeum-dong]], and elsewhere indicate that the Mumun era was the first in which chiefdoms rose, expanded, and collapsed. The increasing presence of long-distance trade, an increase in local conflicts, and the introduction of bronze and iron metallurgy are trends denoting the end of the Mumun around 300 BC.{{sfn|Nelson|1993|pp=110–116}}

In addition, 73 tombs similar to the ones found in Japan, estimated to date back to Gojoseon (100 BC), have been found in the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, and the discovery of [[jar burial]]s, suggest a close relationship with Japan,<ref name="ReferenceA">小片丘彦「朝鮮半島出土古人骨の時代的特徴」『鹿児島大学歯学部紀要』 (18), 1–8, 1998</ref> and Gojoseon, proving that Gojoseon and Yayoi period Japan maintained close relations with one another even during the ancient times.

===Bronze Age===
The [[Bronze Age#Korea|Bronze Age in Korea]] is often held to have begun around 900–800 BC,<ref name="Connor" /> though the transition to the Bronze Age may have begun as far back as 2300 BC.<ref name="Kim and Bae" /> Bronze daggers, mirrors, jewelry, and weaponry have been found, as well as evidence of walled-town polities. Rice, red beans, soybeans and millet were cultivated, and rectangular pit-houses and increasingly larger [[dolmen]] burial sites are found throughout the peninsula.<ref>[https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/977 Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218153900/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/977/ |date=2017-02-18 }}, UNESCO</ref> Contemporaneous records suggest that Gojoseon transitioned from a feudal federation of walled cities into a centralised kingdom at least before the 4th-century BC.{{sfn|Lee|Park|Yoon|2005|pp= 82–85}} It is believed that by the 4th century BC, [[Iron Age|iron culture]] was developing in Korea by northern influence via today's [[Primorsky_Krai|Russia's Maritime Province]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251565346|title=Large-scale 2nd to 3rd century AD bloomery iron smelting in Korea}}</ref><ref>Wontack Hong, "The Yemaek Tungus of Central Manchuria and Korean Peninsula: Interactions between the Xianbei and the Yemaek Tungus"</ref>