Members of the 2nd ID Band entertain the crowd along with members of the ROK Army 5th ID Band at Jeongok-ri. (Seth Robson / S&S)
Members of the 2nd ID Band entertain the crowd along with members of the ROK Army 5th ID Band at Jeongok-ri. (Seth Robson / S&S)
2nd ID saxaphone player Master Sgt. Russell Moon entertains the crowd at Jeongok-ri. (Seth Robson / S&S)
Spc. Chris Smith (string bass) and Senior Sgt. Thomas Wilson (drums) of the 2nd ID Band entertain the crowd at Jeongok-ri. (Seth Robson / S&S)
CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — Cavemen once walked at Jeongok-ri — the site of a concert by soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division Band on Wednesday.
2nd ID soldiers discovered the Area I Paleolithic site in 1978, according to a pamphlet available at Jeongok-ri.
They found four pieces of stone tools there and informed professor Kim Won-yong of Seoul National University and professor Jeong Yeong-hwa of Yeungnam University. Eleven site excavations unearthed more than 4,000 pieces of stone tools, including hand axes, the pamphlet said.
This week the 2nd ID band performers combined with members of the Republic of Korea Army’s 5th Infantry Division Band to perform a concert at the 12th Yeoncheon Paleolithic Festival at the site.
The thousands of South Korean schoolchildren who attended also were amused by performers dressed as cavemen and activities such as building houses from sticks.
Chief Warrant Officer William Brazier, the 2nd ID band leader, said cavemen may have made their own music at the venue.
“They might have had a primitive horn or a woodwind instrument. The first flutes were made of bone. And of course, they would have had drums. They would have had a real rock concert,” he said.
The only archaeological-motif song the band performed was the theme to the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
However, Brazier said some of the percussive songs played during the concert would be tied to the sort of music cavemen might have played.
The 5th ID band leader, 1st Lt. Kim Sung-Soo, said he visited the site in high school and that the concert would help share its history.
Staff Sgt. Thomas Wilson, a 2nd ID drummer, said the Jeongok-ri concert was special.
“Outside, you can get more people to relax and have more fun,” he said.
The South Korean cavemen were related to North American cavemen, Wilson observed. “Our cavemen came from this area across a land bridge,” he said, referring to the passage across the Bering Strait linking Siberia and Alaska during the last ice age.
“I’m a history buff and I just like looking through and seeing what life must have been like” during caveman times, he said.
Sgt. James Nimon, a clarinet player, said his daughter, Brittany, 12, from Fort Drum, N.Y., would enjoy visiting Jeongok-ri.
“She would love it if she had a chance to come here for a vacation,” he said, looking at a group of South Korean children playing with some caveman sculptures.
