Contradictory Meanings Intertwined with Cold War Heritage in Korea

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last few decades in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the Korean peninsula, there has been a gradual transformation of associated meanings and memories from conflict and trauma to peace and reconciliation. Amid the ongoing conflict and tension between the two Koreas, this change is actively promoted by tours that visit destroyed buildings and war infrastructures remaining in the border area to the south. Over the past twenty years, material remains from the Cold War era began to be explored by archaeologists as evidence of the historic era and an anchor to reflect on the past and move forward. In this paper, I discuss how two types of material remains associated with the Korean War (1950-53) - barbed wire fences and observatories - have been transformed from military infrastructures representative of conflict to the sites where peace and reconciliation are now promoted. This material record of the Korean War is intertwined with contradictory meanings by sending hopeful messages to the public while maintaining the presence of military infrastructures. This paper demonstrates the limitations of promoting peace within the ongoing conflict by widening the understanding of Cold War heritage in the Asian context.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52788