LOWER AND MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC OF NORTHEAST ASIA: A GEOARCHEOLOGICAL REVIEW

Recent progress in Quaternary research in Northeast Asia in general provides necessary information to establish coherent definitions of chronostratigraphic units of paleolithic archeology. Based on paleoclimatic and archeological data, the boundary between Lower and Middle Paleolithic can be drawn around 75,000 BP, while the Middle-Upper Paleolithic boundary can be set around 35,000 BP. The age of lithic assemblages recovered from the Imjim Basin of Korea proved to be late Middle Paleolithic. Extensive hominid occupation of the basin occurred around 45,000 BP under rapidly deteriorating climatic conditions. Samples collected from the Imjim Basin and other Korean localities indicate that "Acheulian-like" bifaces occur regularly among Korean lithic assemblages. Despite the similarity in the morphology of some tools shared between them, application of a modified East African paleolithic typological system indicates that the composition of Korean assemblages differs from those of the African Lower or Middle Paleolithic. The apparent "archaic" look of Korean samples appears closely related to the raw materials exploited for tool manufacture.