ABSTRACT
KOREANS like to boast of 'five thousand years of history', calculated from the birth of a legendary ancestor, born of a bear in 2333 BC. Much of their real prehistory still awaits the spades of the archaeologists. The earliest relics of Homo erectus to be found in the area are those of Lantian man who lived in the north Chinese province of Shaanxi about a million years ago. It was then warmer than today and there was forest and grassland that supported tigers, bears, elephants, deer and horses. The bones of 'Ryonegok man', thought to date from 400,000-500,000 years ago were found near Pyongyang in the 1980s. In the same area the bones of 'modern man' have been found in layers said to be from 40,000-50,000 years ago, along with a wide variety of animals. Fluctuations in climate and sea level must have affected these people and much of the area was inundated, but it escaped glaciation so that some continuity of the population is not impossible.
