THE ORIGINS OF THE KOREANS: EVIDENCE OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Three basic hypotheses concerning the origins of the Korean people have been the subject of debate – that of admixture, that of local origin, and that of a northern origin. North Korean specialists hold the local origin theory stating that the ancestry of modern Koreans can be traced back at least to the Bronze Age, if not to the Paleolithic. Most South Korean researchers advocate the northern origin theory, based on the absence of direct archaeological continuity between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The fi nal solution will only be possible after biological, archaeological, and historical data have been integrated.