The Osanri site on the East Sea, which was found in the 1980s, belongs to
the early history of the Sea and has made a new impact on researches on Korea's prehistoric age. Yet, the documents on the Osanri C zone, Mangsangdong, and the Munamri site ha ...
The Osanri site on the East Sea, which was found in the 1980s, belongs to
the early history of the Sea and has made a new impact on researches on Korea's prehistoric age. Yet, the documents on the Osanri C zone, Mangsangdong, and the Munamri site have been recently reported without
their genealogy being examined thoroughly. However, these documents can be used for archaeological research only through the comparison of them with their adjacent regions.
The document about the Osanri C zone shows fairly stable stratum with the ceramic development stage, starting from the lowest ceramics, the mixed type of red burnished ceramics and Abnalmun (nail-pressed pattern), to ceramics without any patterns, to red burnished ceramics (the 1st stage of the Osanri C zone), to Osanri-type ceramics (the 2nd stage of the Osanri C zone), to ceramics with raised designs (the 3rd stage of the Osanri C zone). That indicates that the C zone is different from the A`B zones. In the meantime, the Munamri site was composed of Abnalmun (nail-pressed pattern), ceramics without any patterns and red ceramics without any patterns. And both ceramics with raised designs and Osanri-type ceramics (the 2nd stage of Munamri) have been found.
In my view, red burnished ceramics (the lowest stratum) were also found in the A`B zones as the C zone. Accordingly, the A`B zones can be divided
into the 1st (red burnised ceramics) and 2nd (Osanri-type and raised-design ceramics) stages.
In this respect, the 1st stages of the A`B`C zones and the 1st stage of Munamri can be categorized as the 1st type of the East Sea. On the contrary, even though the stratum of Osanri-type and raised-design ceramics existed in the Osanri C zone for 300 years, the two types were also found in Munamri, and Abnalmun at the rims and rasied-design ceramics were found in the Type of Sergeyvka which is considered to indicate genealogy. This makes it more plausible that the two ceramics belong to the 2nd type of the East Sea that is constituted by the 2nd and 3rd types of the Osanri C zone, the 2nd type of the Osanri A`B zones and the 2nd type of Muanmri.
The archaeological feature of the 1st type of the East Sea is called the Malyshevo Culture of Amur which is consisted of the mix of red burnished ceramic and Abnalmun (punctured-pressed pattern). And the absolute age of the Malyshevo culture says it started earlier at 7000B.P. and coincides with the age of the 1st type of the East Sea, around 6000-5800B.P. Moreover, The clay figures that were found in the Osanri C zone are very similar to those of the Malyshevo culture.
Abnalmun at the rims and raised-design ceramics which represent the 2nd type of the East Sea is very similar to those of the Type of Sergeyvka. The ceramics of the Boisman culture are clearly different from what the document of the Osanri site says in terms of the width of ceramic patterns and the shape of rims and it did not have ceramics with raised designs. Yet, there is great similarity in ceramics' forms, and the width and techniques of ceramic patterns between the Tpye of Sergeyvka (featuring both Abnalmun at the rims and ceramics with raised designs) and Osanri-type. The fact that jade earrnigs excavated in Munamri and Chertovy Vorota were much alike is another evidence that proves such cultural exchanges.
For this reason, the 2nd type of the East Sea (5800B.P.) is considered to be affected by the Type of Sergeyvka and its absolute age is also a bit earlier than that of Sergeyvka.
During the mid Neolithic era, comb ceramics of the pointed bottoms appeared after the 1st and 2nd types of the East Sea. In this regard, the 1st and 2nd types of the East Sea which seem to have existed earlier than comb ceramics can be recognized as a specific culture and they could be dubbed the Upper and Lower culture of Osanri.
The Malyshevo culture of Amur and the Type of Sergeyvka lasted about 1000years but they appear to have constituted a stratum in the East Sea