Jungdo headquarters files emergency additional report to Cultural Heritage Administration on Friday
Item A-54 among 97 objects may date to Bronze Age or earlier
The Chuncheon Jungdo Prehistoric Site Preservation Headquarters filed an emergency additional report with the Cultural Heritage Administration on Friday, identifying a specific item among the 97 objects found Tuesday at the construction site for the new Gangwon Provincial Office building in Goeun-ri, Chuncheon, as potentially a prehistoric artifact.
The item singled out by the headquarters is designated A-54 in the serial numbering of the 97 objects discovered at the site.
According to the headquarters, A-54 was found in a zone that had already undergone a full precision excavation survey and been backfilled.
Site photographs show a dark gray-black surface and a flat, plate-like form of consistent thickness, with cross-sectional features at the break point that appear consistent with fired material.
Charcoal was also found distributed around A-54.
The headquarters stopped short of drawing conclusions about the type or age of A-54 based on photographs alone.
However, it said it could not rule out the possibility that the object is a prehistoric artifact — such as earthenware from the Bronze Age or an earlier period — and therefore filed the emergency additional report, calling for physical examination by the Cultural Heritage Administration and archaeological experts.
The headquarters said the investigation must go beyond simply determining whether A-54 is an artifact.
If an object with potential prehistoric significance was found in a zone that had already been fully excavated and backfilled, the headquarters said, authorities must also review the original excavation survey and the backfilling and soil-movement processes.
Along with the additional report, the headquarters submitted six requests to the Cultural Heritage Administration: a professional and scientific examination of whether any of the 97 discovered objects can be identified as prehistoric artifacts; a specialist assessment of A-54, including the possibility that it dates to the Bronze Age or earlier; verification of the exact location where A-54 was found and comparison with existing excavation records; an investigation into the location of the charcoal found near A-54 and its relationship to the surrounding soil layers; a re-examination or confirmatory survey of zones previously declared fully excavated and backfilled; and preservation measures to prevent any alteration of the discovery site or resumption of construction before the specialist examination is complete.
Kim Jong-mun, standing representative of the headquarters, said the group was not asserting that A-54 is definitively a Bronze Age artifact, but calling on the relevant authorities to professionally verify that possibility. "This object was found in a zone that had already been fully excavated and backfilled," he said. "We need to determine whether it was simply missed during the original survey, or whether it was displaced during the excavation or backfilling process."
Kim also stressed that the investigation must extend beyond the object itself. "Charcoal was found near A-54 as well," he said. "Rather than taking just the one object away for assessment, the site needs to be examined in full — including the exact location, the soil layers, and the surrounding charcoal."
The headquarters noted that 97 objects were already found Tuesday at the new provincial office construction site, and that it had now gone further by identifying a specific item among them as potentially prehistoric and filing an additional report with the Cultural Heritage Administration. It said on-site verification and investigation into the cause must come before any hasty resumption of construction.
For objects found in zones previously declared fully excavated and backfilled in particular, the headquarters said, authorities must conduct a comprehensive review — not merely assess individual artifacts, but also examine the original excavation findings, the precise location and stratigraphic context of each discovery, and the backfilling and soil-movement processes. The headquarters called on the Cultural Heritage Administration to carry out an in-person, physical inspection in response to the additional report and to publicly disclose its findings — including whether a re-examination is warranted — to the people of Gangwon Province and the broader public.
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