The Korean Archaeological Society is a professional and scholarly association of archaeologists in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. The Society publishes the peer-reviewed ''Journal of the Korean Archaeological Society'' (

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: ; RR: ''Hanguk Kogo-Hakbo''). This journal is the South Korean equivalent of scholarly archaeological journals such as ''

American Antiquity The professional journal ''American Antiquity'' is published by Cambridge University Press for the Society for American Archaeology, an organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas. The journal is considered to be the flagship jou ...

'', ''

Kaogu ''Kaogu'' () is a peer-reviewed monthly academic journal of Chinese archaeology, published by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. History The predecessor to what would become Kaogu was published from 1934-193 ...

'', '' Antiquity'', and ''Kokogaku Kenkyu''. The Society also hosts a national conference every year in early November. The organization has been around in one form or another since the Koreanization of archaeology began in the wake of Japanese colonial rule in Korea (c. 1910–1945). Antecedents of the Korean Archaeological Society include the Korean Art Historical Society (''Hanguk Misulsa Hakhwoe'') and the Korean Archaeology and Ancient Art History Society (; ''Gogo Misul Dongin Hwoe''), the latter of which was formed in 1961. The first issue of the journal ''Archaeology and Ancient Art History'' (; ''Gogo Misul'') was published the previous year. In 1968 the name of the journal was changed to ''Studies in Art History'' (; ''Misulsahak Yeongu'').

Origins

The year 1967 also marked the foundation of another academic society by Kim Je-won, the Head of the Korean National Museum, along with a small coterie of scholars including

Kim Won-yong Kim Won-yong (1922–1993) was a South Korean archaeologist and art historian. Noted in the discipline of Korean archaeology and ancient art history (Yoon 2006), he was one of the first people recognized as an archaeologist in Korea to receive a ...

, Kim Jeong-gi, Yun Mu-byeong, Han Byeong-sam, Im Hyo-jae, and several others (Yoon 2006:265). These scholars were concerned about publicizing archaeological excavations in Korea more than anything else, and together they published the first issue of a journal called ''Archaeology'' (''Gogohak'') in 1968. Subsequent issues were published occasionally between 1969 and 1979. Yet another competing group emerged in 1967: the Association of Korean Archaeology (; ''Hanguk Gogohak Hyeophoe''). This group was led by the ancient-historian/archaeologist Kim Gi-ung of Dong-A University.

Consolidation

In 1976, Kim Won-yong and 38 other scholars met at

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea, established in 1905. The university is included as one of the SKY universities, a popular acronym referring to Korea's three most prestigious universities. The ...

for a conference and formed what is essentially the modern version of the Korean Archaeological Society. However, the name adopted in the meeting, the Society of Korean Archaeological Studies (''Hanguk Gogohak Yeongu Hakhoe'') slightly differs from the name used today. During the same meeting, they officially dissolved the old Association of Korean Archaeology. Kim was installed as the first President of the Society. The regular publication of ''Hanguk Gogo-Hakbo'' began from this time. In 1986 the Korean Archaeological Society adopted its present name.

Structure and administration

The Society is hosted and run on a rotating basis by university departments and other institutions for a period of approximately 1–2 years. The current host of the Society is the Department of History at Sungsil University,

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. The current President of the Korean Archaeological Society is Professor Choi Byeong-hyeon of the Department of History, Sungsil University. Choi became president in mid-2006. The former president of the Korean Archaeological Society is the Professor Lee Baek-kyu of Gyeongbuk National University in Daegu. The society has several thousand individual members in South Korea who consist of regular (i.e. professors, instructors, researchers) and student members. University libraries around the world subscribe to the ''Journal of the Korean Archaeological Society'' as institutional members. Most of the hundred or so individual members from outside South Korea live in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. This is emblematic of the good work that Korean and Japanese professional archaeologists have accomplished in establishing friendly and mutually beneficial relations. The Korean Archaeological Society has actively lobbied the South Korean central and provincial governments on important matters related to the preservation and protection of Korean cultural heritage. They also offer periodic professional workshops for archaeologists in South Korea.

Journal

The Korean Archaeological Society published its 60th issue of ''Hanguk Kogo-Hakbo'' with a 30th anniversary issue in Autumn 2006. The majority of those who read and contributed articles to the journal until the 1990s were ancient historians and historical archaeologists. As such, the subject matter dealt with in the journal was heavily weighted to the

Korean Three Kingdoms Samhan or the Three Kingdoms of Korea () refers to the three kingdoms of Goguryeo (고구려, 高句麗), Baekje (백제, 百濟), and Silla (신라, 新羅). Goguryeo was later known as Goryeo (고려, 高麗), from which the modern name ''Kor ...

Period and culture. In the last 15 years the scope of Korean salvage and academic archaeological excavations has widened considerably, and thus the content of the journal has changed to reflect that. Now the journal has published articles ranging chronologically from the Korean Palaeolithic to the

Jeulmun The Jeulmun pottery period is an archaeological era in Korean prehistory broadly spanning the period of 8000–1500 BC. This period subsumes the Mesolithic and Neolithic cultural stages in Korea,Choe and Bale 2002 lasting ca. 8000–35 ...

Mumun The Mumun pottery period is an archaeological era in Korean prehistory that dates to approximately 1500-300 BC. This period is named after the Korean name for undecorated or plain cooking and storage vessels that form a large part of the potter ...

, and

Protohistoric Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in ...

periods.

References

*Barnes, Gina L. ''China, Korea, and Japan: the Rise of Civilization in East Asia''. London, Thames and Hudson, 1993. *Korean Archaeological Society WEBSITE: Summary of Society: Society Histor

*Yoon, Se-young. Hanguk Gogohakhoe-eui Tonghab Tansaeng Gwajeong Tale of Two Archaeological Societies: How the Korean Archaeological Society Came to be Established ''Hanguk Kogo-Hakbo'' ournal of the Korean Archaeological Society60:263-269, 2006.

External links