President
"Historical relics and remains are valuable assets of the country."
The remains and relics of the Paleolithic era known to us so far serve as precious treasures that convey the time-honored history of our nation.
The Kumchon Cave was excavated in Juche 68(1979) with fossils of mankind found in the Paleolithic era.
The Kumchon Cave was about 30 meters high from the surface at the time of excavation, and the entrance was about 1.5 meters high, 1.2 meters wide and 40-50 meters long.
The cave was composed of three layers, each of which was composed of a layer of brown clay with a limestone breeze, 1.2 m thick in the middle layer of calcareous cement, 1.5 m thick in the middle layer of brown clay with fine sand, and 1 m thick in the bottom layer of brown clay.
The human fossils originated from the lower and middle layers, ranging from 10 to 30 m from the mouth of the cave, and the human fossils found in the cave correspond to the jaw, teeth and body bones.
The jaw is compromised by the entire and half of the left jaw branches, and the remaining portion is preserved. The left part of the jaw is preserved by one canine, two premolars, two molars, and two premolars and molars on the right side, respectively.
The jaw features are the first characteristic of the genial bulge, the formation of a maxillary bulge, but its development is very weak. The chin protrusion angle, which reflects the protrusion of the chin bulge, is 76° and the chin protrusion index is 105.6, especially the chin protrusion index is small, which belongs to the minor axis among the gents.
Its jawbone is no high but it's relatively thick.
The jaw is 31.2 mm in the joint, 32.0 mm in the region of the mental foramen, 31.8 mm in the region between the first and second molars, and shorter than the Sungri (37.0 mm) or the Mandal (35.4 mm) height.
This feature can be found in the lower jawbone of Sungri and Mandal.
The thickness of lower jawbone is 16.6mm in the joint, 15.0mm in the region of the mental foramen and 18.0mm in the region between the first and second molars which is similar to Sungri and Mandal.
The depth of the canine tooth sheath is 46.8 which is deeper than that of neolithic man like Sungri(40.0) and Mandal(42.1) canine tooth sheath. The proportion of the depth of the canine tooth sheath in the jaw is 49.2%, while the number of modern canine tooth sheath is 42%.
The feature is also the formation of a jaw spine but not a distinct one, especially the upper part of the adherent jaw lingual spine.
The tooth group of the first molar is 12.4 mm long, which is larger than that of neolithic Korean people (11.13 mm).
Thus, Kumchon has a progressive feature whose height and location are not at all distinct from neolithic man, and also some primitive features such as the formation of a jaw bulge, its development is quite weak, the jaw spine is not distinctly formed, the thickness of the jaw is relatively thick and the tooth size is large, so the Kumchon man is considered as an early stage of the novice.
The fossils found at the Kumchon Cave Site clearly prove that our ancestors have lived in the Taedong River basin centered on Pyongyang from the Paleolithic era, the dawn of human history.
