Some of you may have heard about the U.S. GI who found prehistoric hand axes in Korea. His name is Greg Bowen, the man whose discovery rewrote the history of the Old Stone Age. In the spring of 1977, then a 25-year-old U.S. Air Force sergeant, Bowen, and his Korean girlfriend went to the Hantan Resort in Gyeonggido Province in Korea. He happened to find an interesting stone. As an archeology major, he noticed the distinctive traces of human work on the stone. He thought it could be a hand axe from the Paleolithic period. If it was indeed a hand axe, it would be the first to be found in East Asia.
Bowen wrote to Professor François Bordes, a renowned Paleolithic archaeologist, for his advice. Bordes asked him to meet Professor Kim Won-yong at Seoul National University, who was also a prominent archeologist. Bowen followed his advice. Professor Kim immediately recognized the significance of the stone. So, what is its historical significance?
The hand axes are typically in an oval shape with a sharp tip or a sharp edge on the sides. After their first discovery at St. Acheul in France, the axes were considered important relics to prove the intelligence of ancient humans. They were used as multi-purpose knives to chop wood and meat and skin animals. Before Bowen’s discovery, the international archeologist community disregarded East Asia for not having prehistoric relics. Archaeology Professor Hallam Movius at Harvard University used hand axes to draw a line between the east and the west in human evolution. The hand axe Bowen found in Korea proved that the Movius Line was wrong. Humans in the east also shaped stones for different purposes.
Over 4,600 Paleolithic relics were unearthed in the surrounding area of 2.55㎢ where Bowen found the hand axe. This prehistoric site has been protected as Historic Site No. 268.In April, 2011, Gyeonggido Province established the Jeongok Prehistory Museum to commemorate the epochal discovery: http://jgpm.ggcf.krAn American man’s discovery of a hand axe in Korea led to excavating thousands of prehistoric relics, establishing a museum, and even rewriting Paleolithic history.
Canadian producer David Redman promoted Korea’s movable metal type printing technology. We first need to consider the historical significance of movable metal type. In 1997, Life Magazine published a list of the 100 most important events of the past 1000 years in its Millennium Special Issue. Let’s take a look at the top five. No. 5 is Galileo Galilei’s telescope. He proved that the earth revolves around the Sun, not the other way around. No. 4 is the commercialization of the steam engine. James Watt’s steam engine changed our lives forever. No. 3 is the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther translated the Bible from Latin to the German vernacular and made it accessible to the public. No. 2 is the discovery of America. Sponsored by a Spanish queen, Columbus discovered the New World or the Americas.
Guess what No. 1 is. Correct! It’s the invention of movable metal type printing by Gutenberg. Renowned news media and encyclopedias agree that movable metal type printing is the greatest invention that changed the world. Despite its historical significance, many people around the world have yet to know about Jikji, printed in Goryeo (Korea) 78 years earlier than the Gutenberg Bible. Redman recognized a problem: a bias.
Like most North Americans, he believed that Gutenberg was the inventor of the first movable metal type. He was shocked when he learned that there was another book printed before the Gutenberg Bible. It was Jikji. He began to question why Jikji was much lesser known than the 42-line Bible. He wondered if this difference came from a biased historical frame that assumes European superiority over Asian printing technology. Could Gutenberg have been influenced by Goryeo’s printing technology? Goryeo had the world’s most advanced movable metal-type printing technology. The printing of Jikji preceded the printing of the Gutenberg Bible by 78 years. There seemed to be an ample possibility that Goryeo’s technology was transferred to western Europe through the Vatican, which was in active communication with the Yuan Dynasty. Goryeo and Yuan had a strong tie through royal marriages.
Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore also supported this theory. He said at the 2005 Seoul Digital Forum, “It is known in the West that Gutenberg invented the printing technology for the first time. However, the printing technology using metal movable type was learned from Joseon through a papal delegation visiting the Korean kingdom. I learned this at the Swiss Museum for Paper, Writing and Printing. The Pope’s delegation included a friend of Gutenberg, and he brought back some records related to printing technology from his visit to Joseon.” The key to proving Gore’s theory is finding proof of cultural exchanges between the east and the west, particularly regarding movable metal type.
Redman joined hands with Koreans to unravel the mystery of Gutenberg’s invention of movable metal type. He explored different possibilities one by one that Goryeo’s movable metal-type printing technology had a direct or indirect influence on Gutenberg’s invention. He particularly focused on the period between the printing of Jikji in 1377 and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. Finally, he made a remarkable discovery at the Vatican’s Secret Archives: Pope John XXII’s letter to King Chungsuk of Goryeo in 1333.
The Pope expressed his appreciation of Gorye’s hospitality to his delegation. This letter changed the history that had recorded Jesuit priest Gregorious de Cespedes, who came to Joseon in 1593, as the first European to set foot in Korea. More importantly, it revealed evidence of cultural exchange between Goryeo and Europe in the 14th century. Redman produced a documentary “Dancing with Jikji” that shows his journey to unlock the secret about a link between Jikji and Gutenberg’s printing press. In June of 2017, this documentary was screened at many Korean theaters.