One Hundred Days in the Cave

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BY Sun Yung Shin

According to radiocarbon dating, the presence of humans on the Korean peninsula dates back to 40,000 to 30,000 BC. It seems that art, or decoration at least, did not exist until 4,000 BC when the inhabitants of the peninsula began making pottery with comb patterns scraped or scratched into the clay before hardening.

Clans were absorbed into other clans. Fishing, farming, and hunting.

The introduction of metal from the Han civilization brought with it improved farming and an ability to make visible social hierarchies through the production of symbols of power such as dolmens (burial chambers).

And also through the production of more effective weapons.

Earl of Wind, Master of Rain, and Master of Clouds.

The Bear and the Tiger.

These were worshipped by the natives before sun worship replaced such totems.

Metal equaled power.
Bronze daggers, iron mirrors.
Other forms of reverences were smashed and swept away.
With the Bronze Age came the Koreans’ foundation myth, and with it a justification of theocracy.
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Biography

SUN YUNG SHIN’s poem “Donor Sibling Registry” was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her awards include a Minnesota State Arts Board grant for Literature, an Asian American Literary Award for Poetry, and a Bush Foundation Artist fellowship in Literature. Author of the collection of poems Skirt Full of Black (Coffee House Press, 2007) and co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption (South End Press, 2006), she has also published a bilingual Korean/English illustrated book for children, Cooper’s Lesson (Children’s Book Press, 2004). Her new book of essays/memoir and a second poetry collection are forthcoming from Coffee House Press. She lives in Minneapolis.

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