A
Han River basin and central Korean Peninsula
서울 암사동 유적 / Amsa-dong archaeological site
Pit dwellings, hearths, storage, pottery, stone tools, fishing equipment, plant use, and river resources illuminate changing Neolithic households near the Han River.
Neolithic settlement, pottery-classification, household, and river-subsistence context
Principal occupation broadly fifth-fourth millennia BCE, within a longer Korean Neolithic sequence
Pit dwellings, hearths, pottery, stone tools, fishing weights, faunal and botanical remains, storage features, stratigraphy, and regional comparison
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Amsa-dong archaeological site and museum; one river settlement, not the capital or boundary of a Jeulmun people
- Language family
- Unknown from the archaeological evidence
A
Nara Basin and wider Kinai networks
飛鳥・藤原 / Asuka-Fujiwara
Palaces, planned streets, temples, workshops, tombs, waterworks, inscriptions, and imported knowledge reveal uneven institution-building supported by households, migrants, specialists, tribute, and corvée.
Early-state, palace, planned-capital, religious, craft, labor, and diplomatic context
Mainly sixth-early eighth centuries CE
Palace and urban archaeology, temples, tombs, workshops, wooden tablets, inscriptions, environmental study, imported objects, Chinese and Korean records, and later Japanese chronicles
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Asuka palace sites and Fujiwara-kyo landscape; changing court centers, not the center of every community or modern identity
- Language family
- Writing system, court language, spoken vernaculars, legal status, origin labels, and resident identity cannot be collapsed
B
Central-western and southwestern Korean Peninsula with Yellow Sea and archipelago connections
백제 / 百濟 / Baekje
Fortresses, palaces, tombs, temples, city walls, workshops, inscriptions, imported objects, and regional settlements document political relocation, Buddhist institutions, craft, diplomacy, and conflict.
Kingdom, changing-capital, fortress, urban, religious, craft, and diplomatic context
Conventionally 18 BCE-660 CE; the best-preserved World Heritage capital contexts date 475-660 CE
Fortresses, palaces, city walls, temples, tombs, inscriptions, ceramics, metalwork, workshop evidence, imported objects, Chinese histories, Japanese records, and later Korean chronicles
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Gongsanseong and Gongju's Ungjin-capital context; one phase among changing capitals, not the center of every Baekje community
- Language family
- Spoken-language relationships remain debated; written language, court affiliation, and resident identity are distinct
B
Northeastern continental and maritime Northeast Asia
발해 / 渤海 / Balhae or Bohai
Fortified cities, tombs, ceramics, inscriptions, agriculture, hunting, craft, diplomacy, and movement connected diverse communities across the Songhua, Ussuri, Tumen, and maritime worlds.
Multiethnic kingdom, urban, frontier, agricultural, diplomatic, and exchange-network context
698-926 CE, with later community and memory histories
Cities, fortifications, tombs, ceramics, architecture, inscriptions, environmental study, Chinese and Japanese court records, and later Korean historical interpretation
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Kraskino fortified settlement near the Tumen estuary; one regional urban and exchange center, not a universal capital or national boundary
- Language family
- Evidence does not support one language for every subject; linguistic, political, and modern national classifications must remain separate
B
Southeastern Korean Peninsula and Ulsan coastal hinterland
반구천의 암각화 / Petroglyphs along the Bangucheon Stream
Two rock panels preserve whales, marine animals, land animals, people, boats, hunting scenes, geometric forms, inscriptions, and later marks created by successive communities beside a changing stream landscape.
Multi-period rock-art, coastal-lifeway, environmental, and inscriptional context
Approximately 5000 BCE-ninth century CE across multiple carving phases
Rock-art recording, carving technique, superimposition, iconography, inscriptions, landscape archaeology, comparative dating, hydrology, and conservation monitoring
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Daegok-ri and Cheonjeon-ri panels along Bangucheon Stream; a serial heritage property, not a tribal or political boundary
- Language family
- Unknown for prehistoric phases; later writing cannot identify every carver or viewer
G
Nakdong River basin and southern Korean Peninsula
가야 고분군 / Gaya Tumuli
Fortified settlements, cemeteries, iron production, farming, craft, and maritime exchange illuminate several interacting polities whose political scale and alliances changed over time.
Multiple-polity, funerary-landscape, ironworking, farming, and exchange context
Approximately first century BCE-sixth century CE
Tumuli, human remains where ethically studied, grave goods, settlements, fortifications, ironworking debris, ceramics, environmental evidence, external histories, and later Korean chronicles
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Daeseong-dong tumuli at Gimhae; one Gaya center among several, not a universal capital or ethnic boundary
- Language family
- Spoken-language relationships are debated; political labels, material styles, and language cannot be assumed to coincide
G
Yalu/Amnok basin, northeastern China, and northern-central Korean Peninsula
고구려 / 高句麗 / Koguryŏ
Mountain cities, capitals, fortifications, tombs, murals, inscriptions, agriculture, craft, warfare, and diplomacy document a long-lived regional kingdom and diverse subject communities.
Transboundary kingdom, fortified-landscape, tomb, mural, inscriptional, and diplomatic context
Conventionally 37 BCE-668 CE, with foundation chronology and early phases dependent on later and external sources
Mountain cities, palaces, tombs, murals, inscriptions, fortifications, settlements, ceramics, weapons, environmental evidence, Chinese histories, and later Korean chronicles
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Ji'an capital and tomb landscape, compared with the Pyongyang-area tomb complexes; not a modern border or exclusive national-heritage claim
- Language family
- Goguryeo language relationships remain debated; political subjecthood cannot be equated with language or ethnicity
G
Northwestern Korean Peninsula, Liaodong, and connected river corridors
고조선 / 古朝鮮 and 樂浪郡 source contexts
Bronze objects, settlements, tombs, seals, inscriptions, imported and locally made goods, and external histories document changing communities, rulers, commandery institutions, and cross-border interpretations in the northwestern peninsula.
Archaeological, external-textual, kingdom, commandery, and disputed-interpretation context
Gojoseon traditions span debated earlier periods; Wiman Joseon approximately late second century-108 BCE; Lelang commandery 108 BCE-fourth century CE
Bronze assemblages, settlements, tombs, inscriptions, seals, coins, ceramics, administrative objects, Chinese dynastic histories, later Korean chronicles, and historiography
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Pyongyang region as an archaeological and commandery orientation; not a boundary, universal capital, or modern sovereignty statement
- Language family
- Not securely assignable for all communities; script, office, and ethnicity are distinct
H
Nara Basin, Kinai, and archipelago-wide administrative networks
平城京 / Heijō-kyō; 奈良 / Nara
Palace foundations, gridded streets, temples, workshops, markets, wooden tablets, tax goods, household archaeology, and imported knowledge show how institutions connected a capital with unequal regional communities.
Planned-capital, administrative, household, religious, labor, archive, and exchange context
Capital phase 710-784 CE, with later Nara religious and urban histories through 1000 CE and beyond
Palace and street archaeology, temples, workshops, wells, cesspits, botanical remains, ceramics, wooden tablets, legal codes, court chronicles, religious texts, and conservation research
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Heijō Palace Site; one administrative orientation point within the wider Nara capital, not the center of every legal subject
- Language family
- Official archives overrepresent literate institutions and do not assign one identity or language to every resident or subject
K
Western and southwestern Korean Peninsula
고인돌 유적 / Gochang, Hwasun, and Ganghwa dolmens
Hundreds of stone-built funerary monuments, quarries, burials, grave goods, settlements, and changing landscapes provide evidence for labor, memory, status, and regional diversity.
Bronze Age funerary-landscape, labor, social-differentiation, and regional-comparison context
Mainly first millennium BCE, with local chronological variation and continuing monument histories
Dolmen architecture, quarries, burial contexts, human remains where preserved, grave goods, settlement archaeology, landscape survey, dating, and regional typology
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Gochang dolmen landscape; one component of a serial property, not a capital, ethnic boundary, or map of one political authority
- Language family
- Unknown from funerary architecture
M
Hokkaido, Sakhalin, Kurils, and Sea of Okhotsk networks
モヨロ貝塚 / Moyoro shell mound
Dwellings, shell deposits, marine-mammal and fish remains, plants, tools, ceramics, burials, imported objects, and ritual evidence illuminate coastal households linked around the Sea of Okhotsk.
Coastal archaeological, household, fishing, hunting, burial, exchange, and human-remains ethics context
Approximately fifth-ninth centuries CE at Moyoro, within broader regional Okhotsk-period variation
Semi-subterranean dwellings, shell and bone deposits, faunal and botanical study, ceramics, tools, metal, imported objects, burials and human remains under ethical restrictions, dating, and regional comparison
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Moyoro shell mound museum and archaeological site; one coastal settlement, not an ethnic capital or territorial boundary
- Language family
- Proposed linguistic relationships remain hypotheses and cannot determine every resident's identity
M
Osaka Plain, Kinai, and Inland Sea networks
百舌鳥・古市古墳群 / Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group
Keyhole, round, and square mounds, moats, haniwa, associated settlements, craft, and landscape engineering reveal elite competition, coordinated labor, and changing regional authority.
Kofun-period funerary-landscape, labor, status, craft, and regional-authority context
Principal serial property approximately late fourth-late fifth centuries CE within the broader Kofun period
Mound form, moats, haniwa, grave goods where accessible, survey, remote sensing, environmental reconstruction, settlement archaeology, chronicles composed later, and conservation records
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Mozu tumulus group at Sakai; one half of a serial landscape, not a capital or boundary of a Yamato people
- Language family
- Spoken language cannot be read directly from mound shape; later court language and every resident's identity remain distinct
M
Northern Kyushu, Korea Strait, and connected maritime worlds
宗像・沖ノ島 / Munakata and Okinoshima
Ritual deposits, shrines, island archaeology, seafaring routes, imported objects, and coastal communities illuminate locally mediated connections across Korea Strait and wider East Asian seas.
Sacred-island, maritime mobility, ritual, diplomatic, exchange, and living-heritage context
Archaeological ritual deposits mainly fourth-ninth centuries CE, with continuing sacred and community histories
Island ritual deposits, ceramics, metalwork, glass, mirrors, site distribution, shrine traditions, maritime geography, chronicles, conservation policy, and living religious practice
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Munakata Taisha and Okinoshima serial property; a sacred maritime network, not a territorial or ethnic boundary
- Language family
- Written traditions and maritime participation do not assign one language or identity to all people in the network
O
Northern Honshu and Tsugaru Peninsula
大平山元遺跡 / Odai Yamamoto site
Early pottery fragments, stone tools, hearth-related evidence, and changing postglacial environments illuminate mobile lifeways near the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.
Terminal Pleistocene-early Holocene archaeological, pottery, mobility, and environmental context
Approximately 13,000 BCE and later early Jōmon-period activity, subject to calibrated dating ranges
Radiocarbon dating, pottery fragments, lithic technology, features, stratigraphy, environmental reconstruction, and comparison among northern Jōmon sites
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Odai Yamamoto I archaeological site; one early occupation context, not an origin point or ethnic homeland
- Language family
- Unknown from the site evidence
S
Aomori Bay and northern Honshu
三内丸山遺跡 / Sannai Maruyama site
Pit dwellings, storage pits, graves, large post-built structures, plant cultivation and management, hunting, fishing, craft, and long-distance materials document changing community life over many generations.
Long-lived Jōmon-period settlement, household, subsistence, craft, burial, and exchange context
Approximately 3900-2200 BCE
Dwellings, storage, burials, postholes, middens, botanical and faunal remains, ceramics, lithics, lacquer, exchange materials, dating, and landscape study
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Sannai Maruyama archaeological site and museum; a major settlement, not a tribal capital or national origin point
- Language family
- Unknown from archaeological evidence
S
Hokkaido and connected northern island and maritime worlds
擦文文化 / Satsumon archaeological contexts; アイヌ / Ainu
Settlements, hearths, agriculture, hunting, fishing, iron tools, ceramics, textiles, trade, and encounters with Okhotsk and Honshu networks illuminate change through the first millennium and beyond.
Archaeological-classification, household, farming, fishing, exchange, colonial-history, and living Ainu context
Approximately seventh-thirteenth centuries CE; this collection emphasizes evidence through 1000 CE and notes later transformation
Settlements, hearths, ceramics, iron tools, botanical and faunal remains, textiles, trade objects, dating, regional comparison, later records, Ainu oral and institutional knowledge, and colonial research histories
- Reference site or archaeological context
- National Ainu Museum at Upopoy, Shiraoi; a living institutional reference for responsible interpretation, not an archaeological capital or Ainu territorial boundary
- Language family
- Ainu languages form a distinct family; a direct one-to-one assignment of archaeological phases to language or identity is unsupported
S
Lower Amur river corridor
Sikachi-Alyan / Сикачи-Алян
Engraved basalt boulders beside the Amur preserve masks, animals, boats, spirals, and other forms created and reinterpreted across long periods in a landscape maintained by living Nanai residents.
Multi-period rock-art landscape and living Indigenous custodianship context
Multiple proposed phases from Neolithic contexts into later historical periods; exact assignments remain debated
Rock-art recording, boulder location, superimposition, stylistic comparison, nearby archaeology, ethnography, oral knowledge, conservation records, and environmental study
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Sikachi-Alyan village and riverside petroglyph landscape; a living Nanai community and heritage reference, not a territorial or ancestry boundary
- Language family
- Nanai is Tungusic; that living-language context cannot be projected automatically onto every carving phase
S
Southeastern Korean Peninsula and expanding regional networks
신라 / Silla; 경주 / Gyeongju
Mounded tombs, fortresses, palaces, temples, inscriptions, workshops, villages, irrigation, and imported objects reveal changing royal institutions and the labor and regional relationships supporting them.
Kingdom, capital-region, funerary, religious, administrative, labor, and exchange context
Conventionally 57 BCE-935 CE; securely documented institutions developed and changed across later centuries
Tumuli, settlements, fortresses, palace and temple archaeology, inscriptions, wooden documents, ceramics, metalwork, environmental study, external histories, and later chronicles
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Gyeongju Historic Areas; a long-lived capital region, not the center or identity of every Silla subject
- Language family
- Early Korean-language evidence is partial; script, court affiliation, legal status, and resident identity remain distinct
S
Geum River basin and western Korean Peninsula
송국리 유적 / Songguk-ri archaeological site
Dwellings, storage, fields, tools, pottery, burials, craft, and settlement layout document expanding agriculture, household cooperation, exchange, conflict, and social differentiation.
Bronze Age farming, settlement, household, pottery-classification, and social-change context
Broadly first millennium BCE, with Songguk-ri-associated contexts concentrated in the middle-late Mumun sequence
Settlement excavation, pit dwellings, storage, fields, rice and plant remains, stone tools, pottery, burials, bronze objects, fortification evidence, and regional survey
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Songguk-ri archaeological site near Buyeo; an influential settlement reference, not a capital or ethnic homeland
- Language family
- Unknown from archaeological classification
Y
Northern Kyushu and Ariake Sea networks
吉野ヶ里遺跡 / Yoshinogari site
Moats, dwellings, raised-floor buildings, burials, farming tools, bronze and iron objects, craft, and exchange document a settlement whose scale and social organization changed over centuries.
Yayoi-period settlement, wet-rice farming, burial, craft, conflict, and exchange context
Approximately fifth century BCE-third century CE, with chronology varying by regional scheme
Moats, structures, storage, burials, human remains where ethically studied, botanical evidence, tools, ceramics, bronzes, iron objects, dating, and attributed Chinese dynastic testimony
- Reference site or archaeological context
- Yoshinogari archaeological site and historical park; a major settlement, not a securely named Wa capital or ethnic boundary
- Language family
- Spoken-language change and contact remain debated; archaeology alone cannot assign every resident a language
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