Culture contact and culture change: The Korean peninsula and its relations with the Han Dynasty commandery of Lelang

Abstract

Abstract The most controversial topic in Korean archaeology and history today concerns the Han Lelang commanderies that were established in the Korean peninsula during the Han dynasty in 108 BC and lasted for 400 years. Despite the many archaeological, historical, and inscriptional evidences to the contrary, North Korean archaeologists and the South Korean historian Yun Nae‐hyon continue to deny the existence of the commandery Lelang in the Korean peninsula. This work adopts a different approach from previous Japanese or Korean scholarship on Lelang studies by focusing on issues of acculturation and culture change. The analysis rests mainly on archaeological evidence, in addition to the earliest ethnohistoric data which date to the third century AD.