Tongsamdong is a large open-air shell midden site, located on the eastern coast of the island of Yongdo off the coast of South Korea. The site was occupied about between 4800-1700 cal BC.
The site consists of a long sequence of shell layers containing stone tools, pottery, shell ornaments and bone fishing tools, between the Incipient and Late Chulman periods. Jomon pottery and obsidian from northern Kyushu in Japan attested to trade connections between Tongsamdong and western Japan.
Floral and faunal evidence recovered from the midden indicate that the people who used Tongsamdong were hunter/fisher/gatherers, who cultivated foxtail and broomcorn millet. Mammal bones did not include domesticated animals, but deer and wild boar were present, as were a large variety of migratory birds. Marine animals include oyster, abalone, great porgy, tuna pacific cod, gray mullet, shark and sea bass.
Archaeology at Tongsamdong
Tongsamdong was first excavated in the early 1930s by Japanese archaeologists S. Yokoyama and T. Oikawa. Additional investigations were led in the 1960s by the University of Wisconsin, and from 1969-1971, excavations were led by the Korean National Museum. The most recent excavations were by the Busan City Museum, in 1999.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the Jomon and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Choy K, and Richards M. 2010. Isotopic evidence for diet in the Middle Chulmun period: a case study from the Tongsamdong shell midden, Korea. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 2(1):1-10.
