research, a number of new scholarly associations were organized in the late 1980s around research areas and topics. These included the Yeongnam Archaeological Society, the Honam Archaeological Society, the Hoseo Archaeological Society, and the Society for the Study of Korean Neolithic Age. These associations continue to help develop more-detailed studies of each area and thematic topics, but they could lead to an overspecialization and minimal scholarly communication across regional or thematic boundaries.

In recent years, an enormous amount of new archaeological data has been produced each year from hundreds of excavations by CRM projects. As a result of this explosion in archaeological fieldwork, a new picture of Korean prehistory and early history is slowly emerging. Chronological and geographical blanks in the archaeological data are being rapidly filled in, and new archaeological information has forced scholars to reexamine the traditional views of Korean pre- and proto-history.

North Korean Archaeology after 1945

In North Korea, the archaeological and historical interpretation of the past has always been closely intertwined with the political and ideological currents of the North Korean regime. After the Soviet forces took control of the northern half of Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II in 1945, the socialist authorities paid immediate attention to archaeological and historical heritage. In 1946, the Provisionary People’s Committee of North Korea promulgated laws and regulations for the preservation of national treasures, ancient sites, scenic spots, and natural monuments. The authorities also established historical museums and organized the Committee for the Preservation of Ancient Sites in Pyongyang and in each province. In the same year, a Neolithic shell midden in Songpyeongdong, Unggi, was excavated by North Korean archaeologists, the first recorded case of an excavation by Koreans. The excavation of a number of prehistoric sites continued until the outbreak of the Korean War.

After that war, archaeological fieldwork was actively carried out in conjunction with national reconstruction and industrialization projects. The leader of the archaeological team was Do Yu-ho, who had studied prehistory at the University of Vienna in Austria during the colonial period. He trained a number of other scholars, including Kim Yong-gan, Hwang Gi-deok, and Kim Yong-nam. Archaeological surveys and excavations in the 1950s accumulated new archaeological data and made it possible for North Korean archaeologists to establish a basic chronology for Korean archaeology, confirming the existence of Paleolithic and Bronze-Age cultures in Korea and overcoming the colonial legacy of Japanese archaeologists.

With this new body of accumulated archaeological data, North Korean scholars began to develop their own interpretations of early Korean history in the 1960s. Their attention focused on the issue of Gojoseon (Old Joseon, or Korea) and its location, territory, cultural sphere, time of formation, and nature of its social organization. The location of Gojoseon on the Liaodong Peninsula in northeastern China was accepted in the 1960s. This period was a golden age for North Korean archaeology, and it was much more advanced than that of South Korea. The most important cultural and historical archaeological theories were Marxism, historical materialism, and unilinear cultural evolutionism.

In the early 1970s, a new state doctrine of juche, or self-reliance, was established as the pillar of political ideology and propaganda in an attempt to idolize the North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. As a result, archaeological interpretation was under the direct influence of the ideology of the state and the ruling Workers’ Party, and consequently, archaeology and historiography in North Korea became stagnant. In the 1980s and 1990s, archaeological research in North Korea was not as active as it had been in the 1960s, primarily because of the poor economic conditions of the country. The number of archaeological sites that were discovered and excavated decreased. Archaeological research in North Korea became dormant, with few archaeological discoveries reported and few original archaeological studies published.

In the early 1990s, a new framework for Korean prehistory was developed by North Korean