Geumgok-dong Yulri Bawigeuneul Site

The Geumgok-dong Yulri Bawigeuneul Site, a bawigeuneul (rock shelter) site, lies at the foot of the western ridge of Geumjeongsan Mountain, facing the Gimhae Plain across the Nakdonggang River. Behind the site a rock face about 6m high stretches out like a folding screen, and the site is well preserved, showing its original form without significant damage. Between December 1972 and January 1973 the Pusan National University Museum conducted an excavation and identified three outdoor hearths inside the rock shelter and one stone-mound feature outside it. Below the rock shelter there had been a shell midden containing comb-pattern pottery and other items, but as a result of the excavation only the rock shelter now remains. Comb-pattern pottery of the late to final Neolithic period, together with polished stone axes, whetstones, stone chisels and polished stone arrowheads, were recovered from inside the shelter and the midden; the finds suggest that the site was used as a dwelling from the late Neolithic through the Bronze Age. This site combines a rock-shelter dwelling with a shell midden. Given its scale, location and the artefacts recovered, it is thought to have been a temporary dwelling for gathering oysters and other shellfish, though the unusual siting and the recovery of objects unlike everyday items — such as cowrie-shaped and oval earthenware pieces — also raise the possibility that it served as a ritual space. The Geumgok-dong Yulri Bawigeuneul Site is representative of the final Neolithic period and is of great importance for understanding the cultural transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age and the daily life of the time. In particular, although Busan has many shell midden sites owing to its rivers and coastline, the Yulri Bawigeuneul Site is unique nationwide as a site formed around a rock outcrop in the mountains.

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Where it is

Region

Buk-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물