On Monday, August 8, Dr. Lee will be speaking at the National Geographic Society to discuss her team’s upcoming fieldwork in Jeju as part of the National Geographic Explorer program. Dr. Lee and the team are excited to work with NGS on communicating the importance of this groundbreaking research to the public. The abstract for Dr. Lee’s presentation can be seen below:
This talk will focus on the volcanic island of Jeju in South Korea, a UNESCO Global Geopark and source of unique insights into East Asian prehistory. Jeju was connected by land to the Asian continent until 15,000 years ago, but the clear signs of human occupation occur after Jeju became an island. Who were the first settlers of Jeju? We know that they were uniquely skilled potters for their time, and made their homes both on the coast and on the mountain slopes. What we don’t know is where they came from, what food resources they used, how they were affected by climate changes, how they modified the island’s landscape to suit their needs, and how they interacted with mainlanders. Gyoung-Ah Lee and her team are applying scientific methods to answer all these questions, using Geographic Information Systems to model landscapes, isotopic data from shell remains to study climate, organic residues on cooking tools to investigate diet, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis to match excavated pottery to clay sources, and more. Her team is building a ‘Story Map’ of the Jeju project to share their findings with a broader public.
