Early Urban Configurations in Mahan, Korea: Local and Regional Approaches to Settlements dated to 100 BCE-CE 300

Summary

Mahan, composed of 54 polities in central and southwestern Korea, grew rapidly from 100 BCE to CE 300, by which time it covered about 40,000 square kilometers, with a population of roughly 500,000. During much of this time, urban zones became the dominant residential mode at both local and regional levels, but without suggesting a strong central authority. No unequivocal capital cities have been identified. At the same time, there is evidence of a dual-urban organization with distinctive functions in terms of social networks, economic activities, and political opportunities led by socioeconomic diversity between the Mahan polities. The local urban centers surrounded by elites’ cemeteries, which were bounded with identical forms of pottery and houses, were mostly formed in agricultural sustaining areas. On the other hand, the regional urban centers represented different social groups and craft activities of iron and bead working, concentrated in the location of possible nodes in wider regional and transregional transportation networks with relatively dense population and prolonged persistence. Urban centers in Mahan may have developed at both local and regional levels, serving different functions because of a high level of economic interdependence between a variety of economic and social groups.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Recent Developments in East and Southeast Asian Archaeology II: Sites, Landscape, and Environment

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14363