The Implication of Jeongokri Lithic Assemblage in the CNU Museum: examining the results of the earliest excavation campaigns

This article is a substitute for an official report of the lithic assemblage stored at Chungnam National University Museum (CNUM). The assemblage was originally acquired by previous museum personnel through several field trips at Jeongokri in 1979. Taking advantage of introducing the Jeongokri assemblage at CNUM, we also reviewed and examined the result of the past Jeongokri Excavation sessions during the earliest phase from 1979 to 1981 in order to suggest some future issues about the archaeological research of the Jeongokri site. A total of 196 lithic specimens were observed and re-classified according to a more refined typological scheme; their quantitative attributes were compiled and analyzed with the same method as adapted on the previously excavated Jeongok ACF assemblage. The result is that: 1) even though the CNUM Jeongokri assemblage is of very cursory and fragmentary surface collection, the assemblage characteristics are quite similar to those of other previously excavated Jeongokri assemblages, 2) and that more clearly defined lithic categories can be established and a new tool type—the pestle—can be suggested to successfully replace the previous ambiguous type—the handplane. In addition, we closely evaluated the context of discovered handaxes within sediments and approached the fundamental reason why the age of the Jeongokri handaxe was wrongfully understood and miscalculated so far. Taking an example of the recently discovered new Jeongokri 85-12 locality, we summoned a caution that the age estimation of the Jeongokri assemblage need to be clearly based on more rigorous designation of typologically genuine handaxes, as well as on the sound explanation of artifact horizon and relevant formation processes lest any more previous trial-and-error should emerge again.