xx, 404 p. : ill. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT DS911.72.K36 1995 / This dissertation is concerned with the formation of the Silla Kingdom, a protohistoric state located in the southeastern portion of the Korean peninsula. Combining theoretical issues and empirical data concerning state formation, I present a case study of how one prime mover, warfare, played a role in the formation of the Silla Kingdom between the first and fifth centuries A.D. Two hypotheses associated with the significance of warfare were formulated and tested against both historical and archaeological data. To examine alternative models about the role of irrigation works and long-distance exchange in the development of the Silla Kingdom, I analyzed relevant historical documents, stelae, and selected archaeological data. Both documentary and archaeological data suggest that irrigation works and long-distance exchange were not sufficiently influential to claim critical roles in the emergence of the state in southeastern Korea. To test hypotheses formulated about the role of warfare, a number of bronze and iron weapons excavated from burials in southeastern Korea were quantified and analyzed in conjunction with data on wars mentioned in the historical documents. In particular, an analysis of empirical data on various kinds of metal weapons that probably were used in battles strongly supports the premise that warfare was a significant factor in the state formation process of the Silla Kingdom between the first and fifth centuries. Both historical and archaeological sources also reveal that there was a continuous local indigenous development from lower-level sociopolitical stages to higher-level ones in southeastern Korea, finally dominated by the Silla kingdom. Furthermore, based upon the results of mortuary analysis, I conclude that the Silla Kingdom became a state-level society sometime between the middle of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth centuries during the reign of King Naemul (356-402 A.D.). / Committee in charge: Dr. C. Melvin Aikens, Chair; Dr. Vernon Dorjahn; Dr. William S. Ayres; Dr. William G. Loy

xvi, 341 p. : ill. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT GN855.K6 R6 1997 / The primary purpose of this dissertation is to reconstruct sociocultural development in the North Han River Valley in Korea during the prehistoric and proto historic periods ( ca 6000 B .C.-A.D. 300). Based on theoretical ideas about the close relationship between cultural behavior and the natural environment as well as synthetical observation of archaeological data in the North Han River Valley, I have proposed the following testable hypothesis in regard to 'sociocultural development in the North Han River Valley : that its unique ecosystem brought about a subsistence pattern unique to the region. The North Han River Valley's specific geographical formation, connected with the Lower Han River Basin by way of the river system, brought it under the crucial influence of the latter's more advanced cultural elements. The circumscribed environment derived from the distinctively developed geomophological formation of the North Han River Valley influenced autochthonous sociocultural development in the region. Enumerating the most basic factors, the affluent riverine resources of the Valley enabled Chiilmun period inhabitants be heavily dependent on riverine fishing supplemented by the hunting and gathering of wild vegetation. Riverine fishing as well as hunting and gathering richly supplemented the agrarian economy which became dominant in the Valley after the appearance ofMumun people in later prehistoric times. Due to population saturation of limited arable lands, Mumun agrarian people became increasingly circumscribed and could not evolve into a state-level society. In association with this factor, the geographical proximity of the Valley to the Lower Han River inevitably brought it under the influence of advanced cultures emerging in the Lower Han River Basin. This process, which began in the later Mumun period, actually has continued to the present, passing through the protohistoric State Formation period and Paekche kingdom. / Committee in charge: Dr. C. Melvin Aikens, Chair; Dr. Song Nai Rhee; Dr. William S. Ayres; Dr. William G. Loy; Dr. Philip Young