3400 BC to 301 BC

Dolmens and legends

People have lived on the peninsula for many thousands of years. Neolithic villagers make pottery decorated with comb patterns, and in the Bronze Age, from about 1500 BC, rice farming spreads and chiefs are buried under stone dolmens, of which Korea holds tens of thousands. Korean tradition dates the founding of Gojoseon by Dangun to 2333 BC, a date of legend rather than history.