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A Preliminary Study on the Nature of Local Chiefs in the Ancient Yeongsan River Basin Region

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2026, 83(1), pp.45~77
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : January 31, 2026
  • Accepted : February 10, 2026
  • Published : February 28, 2026

YoungEun Choi 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The Yeongsan River Basin is a term referring to the Yeongsan River watershed and its surrounding areas, which share broadly similar material culture and are characterized by the construction of large jar coffins and monumental mound tombs. Existing scholarship in ancient Korean history and archaeology has produced a substantial body of research on the timing and processes through which Baekje integrated the polities of the Yeongsan River Basin, largely based on mortuary evidence. While these studies have yielded important new insights, they have also exposed significant limitations. Most notably, they rest on the uncritical assumption that the polities of the Yeongsan River Basin were incorporated into Baekje’s local administrative system through a uniform process, and they tend to overlook the agency and diversity of local leaders involved in this integration. This study traces the growth of early polities and the emergence of chiefly authority in the Yeongsan River Basin from the Early Iron Age onward, adopting a chronological approach. During the Early Iron Age, leaders were buried with various types of bronze ritual objects, whereas in the Proto–Three Kingdoms period their authority increasingly emphasized military symbolism. However, an examination of mound tombs with square or rectangular platforms indicates that, compared to other regions of the Korean Peninsula, the power of local leaders in the Yeongsan River Basin remained limited and did not extend beyond the collective structure of the community. It was not until around the fourth century, as exemplified by the Doksuribong Tomb in Haenam, that mound tombs clearly expressing the personal authority of individual leaders began to appear. After the fifth century, the emergence of monumental mound tombs across the Yeongsan River Basin suggests the rise of powerful local leaders whose authority was distinct from, and not simply subsumed under, the Baekje central regime. Previous studies have generally assumed homogeneity among these local elites and, on that basis, inferred the relationship between the Baekje center and regional polities. However, analysis of tomb structures and grave goods reveals considerable diversity among local leaders. In particular, their responses to Baekje’s reorganization of regional societies into provincial units were far from uniform. This study argues that such varied responses should be reinterpreted from the perspective of ‘participation and exclusion in local governance.

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