1. Origin
According to archaeological evidences, the Korean peninsula was inhabited by lower palaeolithic people at least as early as 500,000B.C. However, the supposed connection between these palaeolithic people and today's Koreans is blurred at present by the lack of sufficient archaeological excavations and anthropological evidence.
Scholars generally agree that the latecomers of neolithic culture are the direct ancestors of today's Koreans. Anthropological and linguistic studies show that Koreans trace their ethnic origins from those who lived in and around the Altaic mountains in central Asia. Several thousand years ago, these people began to migrate eastward until they finally settled in an area including Manchuria and the Korean peninsula.