An Alternative Approach to the Expansion of Paekche during the Hansŏng Period

Abstract

The expansion of Paekche, one of the ancient states established on the Korean Peninsula, during the Hansŏng Period was one of the major historical archaeological research topics. Many studies were conducted under the premise that the boundaries of Paekche during the Hansŏng Period as recorded in historical documents had existed in real life, and scholars believed that the boundaries and territory of Paekche at the time spatially expanded in concentric rings around the core. These studies were unable to provide an adequate explanation of the diversity or the significance of archaeological resources acquired from the regions surrounding Paekche during the Hansŏng Period, as the expansion of Paekche was understood to have occurred uniformly throughout the surrounding areas. However, it is important to note that, unlike the boundaries of modern states, boundaries of ancient states were flexible and not clearly defined. In addition, it is necessary to take into consideration the possibility that the expansion of ancient states occurred in different ways throughout different regions due to political, geographical, and economic factors as well as their physical distance from the center. This study takes into account these possibilities and compares the regions to the south and north of the Han River by examining the excavated Paekche pottery from the Hansŏng Period in the central region of the Korean Peninsula to better understand Paekche’s expansion process. It also demonstrates that Paekche expanded its influence in the region south of the Han River during the Hansŏng Period while it only maintained several bases in the region north of the Han River, thereby explaining that the expansion of Paekche differed in the two regions due to the differences in the regions’ geopolitical dynamics.

Keywords

• Paekche
• ancient state
• boundary
• expansion
• pottery