Hard-plain pottery is either round clay-striped pottery or triangulated clay-striped pottery. The main areas where it is found are the upper middle Mangyong River, the Youngsan River basin, and the eastern Jeonnam area. Its chronological and spatial aspects definitely differ. Hard-plain pottery was found from the early Iron Age through the Proto-Three Kingdoms Period in the Honam area, which seems to be related with the foundation and growth of Mahan and it is suggested that it is an important clue to understand the nature of the group which used the hard-plain pottery among the small areas of Mahan.
This study classified a bowl, a long jar, a steam pot, pottery with handles, and a long-necked jar which is believed to show the transitional process of the hard-plain pottery according to type, and based on the results of investigating accompanied features, it classified the hard-plain pottery in the Honam area into four periods: Period I ranges from the early 3rd century B.C. to the late 2nd century; Period II ranges from the early 1st century B.C. to the late 1st century A.D. ; Period III ranges from the early 2nd century A.D. to the late 3rd century A.D. ; Period IV ranges from the early 3rd century A.D. to the late 5th century A.D.
In Period Ⅰ, round clay-striped pottery was found in tombs and living features in the upper middle Mangyong River. The tomb features were usually pit tombs where type I bowls(round clay-stripe pottery), type I jars with handles(a jar with bullhorn-shaped handles), type I long necked jars (black burnished-long necked jar) were usual accompanied features, and type II long-necked jars were found, sometimes buried with mounted flat cups (mounted jar) and miniature pots. Bronze items such as slender bronze daggers, bronze mirrors, bronze spears, bronze dagger-axes and bronze arrowheads as well as iron items such as iron axes and iron sickles, and stone arrowheads were all buried together. For living features, shelters, pits and ditches were found. Shelters were mostly square, but some round ones were also found.
Hard-plain pottery which was found in the upper middle Mangyong River were characterized by the transitional shape of the round clay-stripe pottery to a triangulated clay-striped pottery.
A type 1 jar with handles (a jar with bullhorn-shaped handles) has a similar shape as a jar with horn-shaped handles from the Youngsan River basin although there are differences in the shape of the handles. New pottery appeared as follows: clay-striped pottery jar (long jar type I), miniature pot, mounted flat cup, steaming pot, cover, pottery with spout. The composition is identical with the existing main composition of hard-plain pottery in the Youngsan River basin. Therefore, the round clay-stripe pottery culture in the upper middle area of Mangyong River shows the process where the clay-striped pottery culture that was introduced from the Gum River basin became localized and the triangulated clay-striped pottery culture was not new but it was made in the transitional process of the round clay-stripe pottery. It was assumed that the triangulated clay-striped pottery culture which developed in the Youngsan River basin was affected by the round clay-striped pottery culture in the upper middle area of the Mangyong River.
In period Ⅱ, hard-plain pottery and triangulated clay-striped pottery were settled and expanded to the Honam area. It was found in the entire Honam area except for the upper middle area of the Mangyong River, but its main distribution areas were Gwangju, the Youngsan River basin, Haenam peninsula, Jangheung peninsula, Goheung Peninsula and Yeosu Peninsula.
Bowl type Ⅰ(a round clay-striped pottery)· bowl type Ⅱ(a triangulated clay-striped pottery), long jar type Ⅰ(triangulated clay-stripe pottery jar), steaming pot type Ⅰ, a jar with handles of type Ⅱ(a jar with stick-shaped and horn-shaped handles), long type Ⅱ jars A and B were excavated in the Youngsan River basin and accompanied by triangular clay-striped pottery and hard-plain pottery. In the eastern Jeonnam area, bowl type Ⅱ(triangulated clay-striped pottery), bowl type Ⅲ, steamed pot type Ⅱ, bowl with handles and a flat bowl with handles of type ⅡA and type ⅡB were excavated and accompanied by degenerated triangulated clay-striped pottery and hard-plain pottery. It is suggested that there is some chronological difference between the two areas.
As tomb features, Sinchangri-type jar coffin tombs were characterized by horizontal burial with two jars combined. For shelters, the square type and round type were found together, and the square type shelters with a fireplace-type stove were mainly found in the Youngsan River basin. The shelters were usually round in the eastern Jeonnam area and the L-shaped floor heater was found in Sunchon. What was mentioned above was with regard to the early Iron age. To sum up periods I and II when Mahan was established, it is assumed that there were three groups with different characters in the Honam area. The first group used round clay-striped pottery in the upper middle area of Mangyong River and was characterized by pit tombs and square shaped shelters. The second group had triangulated clay-stripe pottery and built square shelters and made jar coffin tombs as its main burial system. The third group had degenerated triangular clay-striped pottery culture in eastern Jeonnam and built round-shaped shelters. In period Ⅲ, hard-plain pottery and soft padded-pattern pottery appeared, and their ratio differed according to the period and area. In early period Ⅲ, hard-plain pottery was typical followed by soft padded-pattern pottery. As time went by, the incidence of the former decreased and that of the latter increased. This is when bowl type Ⅳ, long jar type Ⅲ, and steaming pot type Ⅱ were used as cookers. In period Ⅳ, hard-plain pottery gradually disappeared. It was replaced by soft padded-pattern pottery for cookers. It was usually found in shelters in the Goheung and Yeosu peninsulas. Bowl type Ⅳ and long jar type Ⅲ were found in some shelters, but small bowls and miniature pots were made as hard-plain pottery. The three points for this research involving hard-plain potter in the Honam area were presented as follows:
The first point was related to setting up the single period(단순기) of hard-plain pottery in the Honam area. When the triangulated clay-striped pottery and hard-plain pottery were excavated from swampy places, ditches or pits in Sinchangdong Remains, Gwangju in Honam and hard-plain pottery was excavated along with shelters, lots of soft padded-pattern pottery was found with it and it was difficult to show the hard-plain pottery culture as being from a single period. However, as more excavations have been made, shelters of round clay-striped pottery excavated in the upper middle area of the Mangyong River and shelters and pits with triangulated clay-striped pottery and hard-plain pottery have been excavated in Pyeongdong, Gwangju in the Youngsan River basin, and in addition, shelters with hard-plain pottery alone were found in Sangsam and Namga of Sunchon without soft padding-pattern pottery. Fireplaces in Pyeongdong remains of Gwangju, and L-shaped floor heaters were found in Sangsam and Namga of Sunchon, which shows that they had a more advanced cooking culture. Therefore, it is thought that the single period of hard-plain pottery can be allowed in the Honam area.
The second point is in the Honam area in the Proto-Three Kingdom Period, the west and the east had different aspects. Soft padded-pattern pottery from square shelters in the west were excavated and hard-plain pottery was found in round shelters in the east. However, in consideration that hard-plain pottery was excavated in the Youngsan River basin centering on Taemokri, Damyang in the Proto-Three Kingdom Period, the tradition of hard-plain pottery continued until the 4th century there unlike the results of existing studies that hard-plain pottery fell out of use in favor of soft padded-pattern pottery in the 2nd century in the Youngsan River basin. There is a possibility that hard-plain pottery of the Proto-Three Kingdom Period can be excavated in the upper middle area of Mangyong River, but it is not confirmed yet. The third point was related to the lowest limits of hard-plain pottery. It is assumed that hard-plain pottery disappeared in about the 4th century in the Honam area although there is chronological difference. However, as hard-plain pottery of the 5th century was excavated in Gwangyang which is located in the southeastern area in eastern Jeonnam, there is a possibility that the hard-plain pottery tradition continued until the late 5th century.