기관 및 사업의
온라인 홍보
경기문화재단
Yeoncheon_Archaeological Site in Jeongok-ri
Paleolithic artifacts including handaxes discovered by a US soldier
during his walk along the Hantangang River
It was spring, but the wind still felt cold on the riverside. On the bank of the Hantangang River where there was neither cafe nor passers-by at that time, a US soldier and his girlfriend who were out for a picnic gathered stones to make a fire for a cup of coffee.
The stones that they randomly picked up had an unusual appearance. Greg Bowen who was then 27 years and an NCO based at nearby Dongducheon, had majored in archeology before entering the military. He explored the Hantangang Riverside to find more unusual stones and created reports about them in his spare time, to send them to the French archeologist Francois Bordes. This initiated more than 17 excavation projects that were carried out for over a span of about 30 years from 1979 to 2011, resulting in the unearthing of about 60 Paleolithic artifacts dated 70,000 to 300,000 years ago on the banks of the Hantangang and Imjingang Rivers.
If handaxes had not been discovered, the Hantangang Riverside would have been developed into land for housing and Western scholars would still have believed that in East Asia, Acheulean handaxes and two-faced stone axes had never been discovered. It was the discovery of the century resulted from a coincidental encounter of the tragic history of the Korean War, the presence of the U.S. military base in Dongducheon, and the US soldier who had studied archeology. Greg Bowen, who first discovered the Jeongok-ri handaxes, visited the area again in 2005 after 27 years, with his wife Yi Sang-mi, who was his girlfriend at the time of its discovery. Jeongok was a place that changed his life.
Archaeological Site in Jeongok-ri has a vast area of 778,296 square kilometers and presents visitors with a special experience. You can dress yourself like a Paleolithic man in a prehistoric experience village, make stone tools yourself, cut potatoes or build houses.
Each May, the Paleolithic Festival is held here. Researchers from all over the world, including France, Spain, and Africa, create and exhibit the paleoenvironment of each country. For example, the French team designs its booth in the shape of a cave and paints murals on its walls. The staff of the festival, dressed in Paleolithic clothes made by sewing leather pieces, raise the festivities acting like prehistoric people, carrying stones and imitating mammoth hunting.
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