Researchers from the Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Korean National Heritage Preservation Agency under the National Authority for the Protection of Cultural Heritage have recently unearthed the relics and remains of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Kanggu-Dong, Hyesan City in cooperation with the People's Committee of Ryanggang Province and Hyesan City, Kim Jong Suk University of Education and other relevant units in the province.

   Two house sites of Neolithic Age and four house sites of Bronze Age are discovered and 263 pieces belonging to 17 categories were dug out.

   House sites are almost pit styled ones made by digging ground and erecting wooden pillars.

   At the house sites of Neolithic Age, stone implements such as stone axes and obsidian stone tools were unearthed together with pieces of carved earthenware, typical to the Neolithic Age in our country, including fir leaf-patterned, parallel slanted stripe-patterned and dotted strip-patterned earthenware.

   At the house sites of Bronze Age, stone implements and bone tools were discovered with pieces of earthenware such as hole-striped and black ground earthenware.

   The Archaeological Society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea examined the research on the newly discovered relics and remains, and unanimously admitted that the house sites dated back to the late Neolithic Age, 6000 years ago, and the Bronze Age, 4000 years ago, respectively.

   The discovery of relics and remains corresponding to the late Neolithic Age and Bronze Age in Kanggu-dong, Hyesan City is the first excavation success to show that our ancestors pioneered the area of Mt. Paektu in the Neolithic Age more than 6000 years ago and lived from generation to generation, testifying to the fact that Mt. Paektu is the symbol of Korea as an ancestral mountain of our country and the cradle of the national history and culture of more than five thousand years.

   The findings will make an active contribution in enriching the time-honoured history and culture of Mt. Paektu.

• For more detailed photographs of newly discovered relics, please refer to the national heritage list of this homepage.