30 Years of Excavations at Bokam-ri: From Mahan to Goryeo

National Research Institute of Naju Cultural Heritage to Hold Academic Conference on Oct. 28
Reviewing Excavation and Research Findings

The National Research Institute of Naju Cultural Heritage, under the Korea Heritage Service, will hold an academic conference on October 28 in the institute's main conference room to mark the 30th anniversary of the Bokam-ri excavations and review the findings from the site, which spans the Mahan period through the Goryeo period. The conference is titled “Bokam-ri Site: Exploring Its Historical Layers.”

Area of the Naju Bokam-ri Ancient Tombs Historic and Cultural Zone Restoration Project.

The excavation of Tomb No. 3 at Bokam-ri, which began in 1996, marked a turning point in the study of ancient history in the Yeongsan River basin. Forty-one burial facilities were identified in a single tomb, creating an opportunity to develop a new understanding of changes in burial mound culture and the character of local communities.

Since 2006, the institute has expanded its investigations to settlement sites around the tomb complex and continued excavations. These have uncovered multiple ditches from the Mahan period that demarcated land, wooden tablets from the Baekje period, and building sites dating from Unified Silla through the Goryeo period.

The conference will comprise a keynote lecture, five presentations, and a panel discussion. In the keynote lecture, Kim Nakjung, a professor at Jeonbuk National University who led the excavation of Tomb No. 3, will review the excavation's impact on research into burial mound culture in the Yeongsan River basin and the history of Mahan and Baekje.

Wooden tablets from the Baekje period at the ancient tombs in Bokam-ri, Naju.

The presentations will cover, in order, clay-band pottery culture and multiple ditches (Lee Jongcheol, Jeonbuk National University Museum and Archives); settlement landscapes and social change (Lee Yeongcheol, director of the Daehan Institute of Cultural Heritage); external exchanges involving the groups that built the Naju Dasi tumuli (Professor Oh Dongseon, Sunchon National University); local administration in Baekje during the Sabi period as seen through wooden tablets (Kim Geunyeong, senior researcher at the Seoul History Compilation Institute); and the character of the government seat of Hoejin-hyeon from Unified Silla through the Goryeo period (Kim Sora, curator at the National Research Institute of Naju Cultural Heritage).

Lee Jeongho, a professor at Dongshin University, will moderate the panel discussion that follows. Alongside five panelists, he will discuss the site's historical significance and future research directions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.