Archaeological evidence indicates that the Korean Peninsula
was inhabited by lower Paleolithic people at least as early as 500,000 B.C. Many
archaeological sites, mostly located along rivers, have been excavated. The most
famous are Sokchang-ri in Ch'ung-ch'ongnam-do province and Chon-gok-ri in
Kyonggi-do province. Various stone tools, including hand-axes and
chopper-scrapers, have been found at these sites, leading archaeologists to
believe that their inhabitants engaged in hunting and fishing. These people are
thought to have dwelt in caves, as the bones of many extinct animals and relics
of their daily life have been unearthed in such places. The supposed connection
between these Paleolithic peoples and today's Koreans is blurred at present by
the lack of sufficient archaeological excavations and anthropological evidence.
Scholars generally agree that the ancestors of
today's Koreans were late-comers of the Neolithic Period. According to
anthropological and linguistic studies, as well as legendary sources, Koreans
trace their ethnic origins to those who lived in and around the Altaic mountains
in Central Asia. Several thousand years ago, these people began to migrate
eastward until they finally settled in an area that included Manchuria and the
Korean Peninsula.
When these migrants entered the Korean
Peninsula around the third millennium B.C., they were confronted by natives
called Paleoasians, who were eventually driven into various areas outside the
Korean Peninsula. The Ainu of the northern tip of Japan, the natives of Sakhalin
and the Eskimos of the eastern coast of Siberia are all descendants of these
Paleoasian tribes.
