Summary and Prospective on the dietary reconstruction of Neolithic people in Korea based on stable isotope approach

Abstract

Although the question of the subsistence strategies in the Neolithic period is a central topic in Korean archaeology, the changes in subsistence activities have been investigated on the basis of preserved fauna and floral remains. Most previous studies on subsistence patterns have focused on the quantitative analysis of floral and fauna remains preserved in the shell middens. In contrast to traditional methods such as quantitative analysis of floral and fauna remains, stable isotope analysis provides a direct measurement of past human diets. This method provides information about whether individuals derived the protein in their diet from plant or animal sources. Until now, stable isotopic results of humans from Neolithic period (Ando, Janghang, Daepo, Tongsamdong humans) revealed that the Neolithic people were mainly dependent on marine food resources as hunter-gatherers. Based on the stable isotope data, we can propose that marine resource exploitation was the main subsistence strategy in the Neolithic period. However, there is also a regional difference in stable isotope values between west (Konamri human) and east-south coast. This indicates that there might be a possibility to have regional difference in subsistence strategies during Neolithic period.