The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of chronology for the pottery of the Incipient Neolithic Period and to closely examine the style changes that occurred by looking at decorative patterns, vessel form, and production methods.
Chronological units were established and the relationship between the chronological units was examined by reviewing the features of pottery from the different layers of Incipient Neolithic sites located along the East Coast of Korea. Based on this, a six stage chronology was established for the pottery of the Incipient Neolithic Period. The chronology of the pottery from Incipient Neolithic sites of the East Coast were divided into the early phase (Stages 1 &2), the middle phase (Stages 3, 4 & 5), and the later phase (Stage 6) based on the ratio of patternless pottery, the typicality of stamped-pattern ware, and the common occurrence with raised-pattern ware. It was deemed inappropriate to attribute the ‘later phase’ to the Early Neolithic Period given that a clear link with the previous stage existed and a great deal of raised-pattern ware was yielded.
To closely examine stylistic change, a comprehensive review of decoration pattern, vessel form, and production methods was conducted. In the middle phase of the period, a coexistence between plain/stamped-pattern ware and raised-pattern ware could be observed, but with no influence exerted on one another. In contrast, it can be suggested that the later phase of the this period should be regarded not as being represented by raised-pattern ware (in which there are some eclectic types of pottery) but as a stage in which, with the decline of Osan-ri style pottery, plain pottery gained a greater foothold, and the Dongsam-dong style came to be adopted as a pattern element. To be specific,the later phase of this period demonstrates an across-the-board combination between the Osan-ri and Dongsam-dong styles. Describing this merely as an a sort of compromise between the two styles, and regarding this stage as being one led by raised-pattern ware may serve to diminish the significance of the change that occurred in terms of pottery style. Therefore, it should be appropriate to view the later phase of the Incipient Neolithic Period of the East Coast as a time period in which a transition from the coexistence of two different pottery styles to a true fusion between the two came to take place.