Household Change and Social Complexity in Mumun Pottery Period Korea, 1500-500 B.C.

Abstract

Household archaeology has made important contributions to the study of social transformations. This dissertation examines the role of households, themselves, in the social changes that occurred during the transition between the Early Mumun period (ca. 1500-800 B.C.) and the Middle Mumun period (ca. 800-500 B.C.) in southern Korea. During this transition, incipient social inequality developed in some villages alongside another significant change—households that were previously composed of multiple families became single family units. This co-occurrence has been assumed to be related but how they were related has not been investigated systematically for this region. Using household data from Daepyeong, one of the most densely populated Mumun villages, and the sparsely populated settlement of Pyeonggeo-dong, I document and explain the household changes that occurred through space (Pyeonggeo-dong and Daepyeong) and time (Early Mumun and Middle Mumun periods). I do so by examining archaeological remains, specifically the material correlates of social inequality, that correspond to three interrelated analytical spheres: household space, household composition, and household activity. Evidence from these spheres is used to argue that although Middle Mumun Daepyeong was a ranked village with a distinct elite population, Pyeonggeo-dong did not achieve this status. I further argue that the breakdown of multifamily households raised the potential for competition in Mumun society, ultimately helping to create a context for inequality to develop at Daepyeong.