An investigation of pits containing charred materials in Hoseo area during Late Bronze Age period

Studies focused on the Bronze Age of the Korean Peninsula have addressed this topic through functional and quantitative analyses of storage pits that typified Songguk-ri culture storage facilities. This article concentrates on cases where an unusually high level of charred remains is contained in inside pits. This paper reviews the formation processes and postdepositional processes of the pit containing materials related to combustion events. Carbonized materials are naturally produced by various combustion episodes in the surrounding environments. The depositional process of burnt remains occurs within a short duration. However, the proximity of these pits or dwellings containing charred remains may provide circumstantial evidence of disposal simultaneity. The distribution of pits bearing carbonized materials was, therefore, investigated targeting the sites in the Hoseo region where storage pits are densely concentrated. As a result, multifaceted aspects of charred pits located particularly adjacent to each other were detected in several sites. In turn, this allowed this study to extrapolate the contexts in conjunction with pit management. This investigation demonstrates the possibility that storage pits rich in carbonized remains, which have been traditionally and relatively neglected, may be the subject of research that can broaden the horizons of archaeological interpretation. Furthermore, this research highlights the necessity for future comprehensive scientific analytical examination to extract more precise information from carbon-rich storage pits, as well as studies of Bronze Age economic transformations based on insights gleaned from storage pits.