Korean archaeology

'East Asian archaeology is national history or it is nothing.'
(an overstatement, and maybe even just plain wrong, but widely believed)

An interesting starting place, particularly because it's not an area or subject that many people know a lot about, and also because it raises some interesting issues beyond archaeology.

'Archaeology' is what? Etymology? Popular image? Actual activities?

And 'Korean' is what? A non-trivial question. Contemporary Korean identity is strongly influenced by a colonial past (a colony of Japan through most of the first half of the 20th century) and 50 years of political separation of North and South. But "Ancient Korea" is also a political (or at least politicized) creation. Hyung Il Pai's Constructing "Korean" Origins: a critical review of archaeology, historiography, and racial myth in Korean state-formation theories (DS903 .P35 2000) is a fascinating exposition of the latter point. Consider:

Korea's national spirit (minjokhon) and its ongoing historical struggle (t'ujaengsa) continue to define Korea's national identity as a homogeneous race (tan'il), unified state, and indigenous culture distinctly separate from those of China and Japan. Korea's sense of racial and cultural superiority over other East Asian nations has been further reinforced by racial historical works that inculcate the belief that more powerful Chinese emperors, nomadic invaders, Japanese colonialists, and more recently, Western foes have failed to suppress Korea's national spirit of survival and struggle. A Korean identity was thus forged out of this racial history of suffering by instilling in all Koreans a collective sense of destiny as victims of superpower politics and foreign invasions since time immemorial. Historians and archaeologists played the critical role in the process of Korean identity formation since their disciplines could produce material evidence for past national struggles from excavations and fortress ruins, battlefields, burial mounds, and stele inscriptions of royal conquests. (pg 2)

More recently, with increases in domestic purchasing power, commercial enterprises such as the Korean Folk Village (Minsokch'on) and numerous traditional culture-learning centers have come to dot the capital of Seoul and its vicinity. The main attraction at the Folk Village is a constructed "Korean village landscape" complete with real and fake Yi dynasty yangban residences and ch'ogajip [thatched roof farmhouses]... This village has a thriving market selling rice wines and gourmet delicacies, and entertainment is provided by dancing girls clad in colorful traditional Korean costumes. The exorbitant cost of entrance fees, food, and entertainment does not seem to deter the burgeoning number of middle-class families who are eager for a nostalgic glimpse into Korea's past, a time only two generations distant at most. The profitability of such "ethnic" revivals has also benefited from the increasing numbers of foreign tourists... (pg. 5)

From Ikawa-Smith 1999 (Construction of a national identity and origins in East Asia: a comparative perspective. Antiquity 73:626-629):

The tangible archaeological evidence for the nation's glorious past must be seen by their own nationals in order to promote their sentiment of loyalty, and by foreign visitors if they are to enhance national prestige and assert legitimacy. (pg. 627)

...from the Chinese point of view, the archaeology and history of these societies are considered an integral component of the multi-ethnic history of China... Because Koguryo occupied the northern half of the Korean peninsula and northeast China, the North Korean government has emphasized the role of Koguryo in early Korean history over those of Paekche and Shilla. Among the Three Kingdoms, Koguryo was seen as having played a central role in the formation of Korean ethnic identity. Thus, the legitimacy of Koguryo, and North Korea as its heir, is always highlighted... a series of South Korean governments from 1961 to 1997 were headed [by leaders with] power-bases in the Kyongsang region of southeastern Korea. They were more interested in sponsoring research on Shilla than on Koguryo... The current president of Korea, Kim Dae Jung, used as a presidential campaign slogan 'The New Age of King Kwanggaeto.' Kwanggaeto, who is said to have ruled part of northeast China and the northern half of the Korean peninsula, is revered in Korea as the most successful king in Kogyuro history... the expansionist idea in Kim Dae Jung's reference to King Kwanggaeto was immediately dropped when the Chinese government strongly protested through official channels. (from Yangjin Pak "Contested ethnicities and ancient homelands in northeast Chinese archaeology", Antiquity 73:613-618 [1999])

And from Hyung Il Pai "Nationalism and preserving Korea's buried past" Antiquity 73:619-625 [1999], referring to the era of Japanese colonial control of Korea and Manchuria:

During the colonial period, Korean remains and relics were promoted by Japanese bureaucrats, intellectuals and educators as the most crucial 'scientific' and 'historical' evidence for linking Japan's racial and state origins to the Chinese continent and Manchuria. In this way, archaeological and art-historical data were used to demarcate 'Japanese' homelands, thus supporting the then-popular racial hypothesis which traced the common ancestral origins of the Korean/Japanese races (Nissen dosoron) in Manchuria. This racial theory provided the intellectual justification for Japanese empire-building in northeast Asia at the turn of the century. Consequently, in the post-war period, Japanese archaeologists have been vilified not only for their 'imperialistically' biased interpretations of the Korean past but for using their archaeological knowledge systematically to loot the Korean peninsula...

The ultimate goal of archaeological research, cultural preservation, reconstruction and heritage management has been targetted towards the propagation of the Korean master narrative, aimed at Koreans as well as an international audience... For nearly four decades, the academics of cultural committees have decided in monthly meetings what objects, people, rituals, and customs, and even animals and trees can be designated as 'Korean'...