Paleolithic stone tools found in a village in DMZ

Chipped-stone tools from the Paleolithic era have been found at Daeseongdong Village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced Tuesday that a DMZ survey team composed of members from the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage found two pieces of Paleolithic stone tools in the first research conducted from May 26 to 29.

The tools were found on the hills in the south of the village. One of them was a diamond-shape stabber (a pointy tool which becomes wider at the bottom), which was made out of a piece of stone separated from a larger rock. The other seems to be a piece of a chopper (a stone tool with a sharp edge made from gravel or angular stone).

“We would have to conduct additional research to find more artifacts as multiple quartzite rocks have been found at the top of the hill where we found the tools,” said the state organization. A Paleolithic chipped-stone tools have been found at a joint research of the two Koreas on cultural heritage in the Kaesong industrial complex back in 2004.

Other artifacts from the period of united Silla to Joseon including Sumaksae, a piece of inlaid celadon and a dragon head ornament from the Goryeo Dynasty.


Jong-Yeob JO jjj@donga.com