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Busan Museum Holds On-site Public Briefing on the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden Excavation Survey

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Busan Museum, under the Busan Metropolitan City Museum, and Yeongdo-gu Office announced that they will hold an on-site public briefing at 2 p.m. on May 19 at the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden site (750-1 Dongsam-dong, Yeongdo-gu) to share with citizens the results of the excavation survey conducted at the site for the first time in 26 years.

The Dongsam-dong Shell Midden, discovered in 1929, is a representative Neolithic shell midden site. The National Museum of Korea conducted excavation surveys there from 1969 to 1971, and the site was designated as a Historic Site of Korea in 1979. It is especially well known as the only site in Korea where a shell mask has been excavated.

In 1999, Busan Museum also carried out excavation surveys for the construction of an artifact exhibition hall and site maintenance. More than 1,500 Neolithic artifacts, including a bear-shaped clay figurine and deer-patterned pottery, were excavated at that time.

The current excavation survey began in August last year (2025) following the establishment of the Comprehensive Maintenance Plan for the Busan Dongsam-dong Shell Midden by Yeongdo-gu Office in 2024.

The on-site public briefing, held at the conclusion of the excavation survey, is open to all interested citizens. The program will include an introduction to the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden site, a presentation of excavation findings, and a guided tour of the excavation site.

Participants will be able to directly observe the excavation process and artifact excavation conditions. In addition, academic experts and researchers will attend to discuss the scholarly significance of the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden and review the importance of the site.

Artifacts excavated during this survey include 7,000-year-old miniature pottery, disc-shaped clay objects, and whale-bone harpoons, which are presumed to be traces of ritual activities related to the sea.

Miniature pottery and disc-shaped clay objects are known as ritual-related artifacts from the Neolithic period. The fact that these artifacts were excavated from the same location as whale-bone harpoons suggests ritual activities practiced by Neolithic people engaged in maritime life.

Around 7,000 years ago, maritime fishing activities are believed to have been at their peak, and people are known to have traveled as far as the Kyushu region of Japan to obtain large quantities of obsidian. The Dongsam-dong Shell Midden is thought to have played a central role during this period.

The artifacts uncovered in this excavation are expected to serve as concrete evidence that special ritual activities were conducted at the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden, the departure point for voyages to Japan.

The excavation team also reinterpreted the shell mask, a representative artifact of the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden currently housed at the National Museum of Korea, as an artifact related to maritime rituals from 7,000 years ago.

This reinterpretation suggests the possibility that the artifact dates back approximately 2,500 to 3,000 years earlier than previously theorized based largely on the views of Japanese academia. It is regarded as a groundbreaking achievement that sheds new light on the historical significance of the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden.

Jeong Eun-woo, Director of Busan Museum, stated, “It is highly meaningful to conduct a detailed excavation survey of the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden, one of Busan’s representative historic sites, for the first time in 26 years,” adding, “We have once again confirmed the value of the Dongsam-dong Shell Midden as the starting point of Busan’s history as a maritime capital.”