into closer economic and political contact with the societies of the Late Zhou Dynasty, Final Jōmon, and Early Yayoi. Mumun cultural traits As an archaeological culture, the Mumun is composed of the following elements: Languages According to Juha Janhunen and Alexander Vovin, Japonic languages were spoken in parts of the Korean Peninsula before they were replaced by Koreanic speakers. According to Whitman and several other researchers, Japonic/proto-Japonic arrived in the Korean peninsula around 1500 BC and was brought to the Japanese archipelago by Yayoi wet-rice farmers at some time between 700-300 BC. Whitman and Miyamoto associate Japonic as the language family associated with both Mumun and Yayoi cultures. Several linguists believe that speakers of Koreanic/proto-Koreanic arrived in the Korean Peninsula at some time after the Japonic/proto-Japonic speakers and coexisted with these peoples (i.e. the descendants of both the Mumun and Yayoi cultures) and possibly assimilated them. Both Koreanic and Japonic had prolonged influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families. Subsistence Broad-spectrum subsistence was practiced through the Early Mumun. That is to say, evidence excavated from pit-houses and other outdoor household features indicates that hunting, fishing, and foraging was occurring in addition to agriculture. stone tools used in agricultural subsistence activities are common and include semi-lunar blades. Intensive wet-field agriculture (paddy farming) was in place in the Middle Mumun. However, even the pit-houses of settlements associated with wet-field archaeological features show evidence that people were also engaged to some degree in hunting and fishing. Settlement Large rectangular-shaped pit-houses were used in Early Mumun. These pit-houses had one or more hearths, and pit-houses with up to 6 hearths indicate that such features were the living spaces for multiple generations of the same household. Some time after 900 BC, small pit-houses were the norm. The plan-shape of these pit-houses are square, circular and oval. They do not have interior hearths — instead, the central area of the pit-house floor is equipped with a shallow oval 'work-pit'. Archaeologists see this change in architecture as a social shift in the household. Namely, the tight and multi-generational unit housed under one roof in the Early Mumun changed fundamentally into households formed of groups of semi-independent nuclear family units in separate pit-houses. The average settlement in the Mumun was small, but settlements with as many as several hundred pit-houses emerged in the Middle Mumun. Economy Household production