Harvard Conference on Koguryŏ History and Archaeology

www.fas.harvard.edu/~korea/koguryo

On April 5-7 2005, the Korea Institute hosted an international symposium called The Harvard Conference on Koguryŏ History and Archaeology. This was the first international conference on the topic of Koguryŏ held in North America, and was designed primarily to facilitate the introduction of Koguryŏ-related scholarship in East Asian countries into American academia. The conference presentations covered various aspects of Koguryŏ history and archaeology, presented by specialists from multiple disciplines and regions. There were in all eighteen presentations given by scholars from South Korea, Japan, China, Australia, France and the United States, representing a very broad range of disciplines and perspectives.

Topics addressed included individual issues in Koguryŏ history, surveys of Koguryŏ archaeological sites in Korea and China and efforts made to preserve them, Koguryŏ in Korean historiography, Koguryŏ’s influence on later states and peoples, Koguryŏ tombs and murals, and the history of modern studies of Koguryŏ in East Asia. Much of the material presented at the conference had not been previously available outside of East Asia. Of particular interest were the presentations given by Chinese archaeologists, who reported on the results of recent extensive archaeological excavations at Koguryŏ capital sites in China, much of which had not previously been made public. Such presentations, and the accompanying slides, prompted active and detailed discussions among the conference presenters and attendees.

The forum provided a valuable opportunity for specialists from these various regions to come together as professionals and discuss different facets of Koguryŏ history and culture. The presentations and discussions were translated into English, and the resulting papers are presently being compiled for publication in a volume which is expected to lay a valuable foundation for further studies concerning Koguryŏ and ancient East Asia in the English language. The conference was made possible by the generous support of the Korea Foundation of Seoul Korea, the Korea Society in New York, the Harvard- Yenching Institute, the Harvard Asia Center, the Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, and by the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies.