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The remains of the Balhae period excavated in the Maritime Province are over 300 sites. This includes remains classified as from the Malgal-Balhae period. Many Russian scholars classify Balhae and Malgal as archaeological as well as literary. However, the academic community in Korea interprets Malgal as a part of Balhae. The remains of the Balhae period excavated in the Maritime Province are over 300 sites. It is the future task to narrow the gap between Russian and Korean academia through excavation and interpretation. To date, there are two places where we can clearly confirm the tradition of Goguryeo at the Balhae castle site surveyed in the Maritime Province. It is the Balhae castle of Kraskino in the Maritime Province, located above the Tumen River, and the Balhae castle in the northeastern part of the Maritime Province. Let's look at the characteristics of Goguryeo around here.

The northwestern inner wall of Kraskino Castle (excavated in 2018)

A Study on the Characteristics of Goguryeo in Kraskino Castle

Kraskino Castle is on the southern coast of the Kraskino village of the Khasan area in the southern part of Maritime Province. The name Kraskino has been called since the 20th century. It was previously called 'Yeonchu' and 'Yenchu', which is also the modern name of 'Yeomju' built by Balhae(A.D. 698-926). This castle was jointly excavated by NAHF and IHAE FEBRAS(the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far-East, Far-Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences), and the results of the excavation proved that Balhae succeeded Goguryeo. In addition, it has made great achievements in the excavation of castle of Kraskino by confirming the 'early occupation layer of Balhae' and the layers and relics of the Goguryeo period.

In particular, this place is surrounded by mountainous areas, so you can see the combination of flatland fortress and mountain fortress, one of the characteristics of Goguryeo castle. However, there is a limit to the fact that the surrounding mountains are located in border areas such as China and North Korea, making it difficult to investigate and unearth. The circumference of this castle is 1.38km and horseshoe-shaped. The outside and inside of the wall were all made of stone, and the inside was filled with soil. Doors are installed on the walls of the east, west and south. This door has the structure of ‘Ongseong’ to prevent the enemy from approaching the gate of the castle directly(except for the wall of the north). And there is a protrusion, ‘Chi’, to defend the enemy’s attack, all of which show that Kraskino Castle has the characteristics of Goguryeo.

Pottery and Soil Layers Excavated from Kraskino Castle

The most relics excavated from Kraskino Castle are pottery. More than 2,500 were listed in the excavation survey report from 1980 to 2018. It was excavated with intact conditions and small pieces, and some are restored on the drawing. The types and forms of pottery are also very diverse. The Yunje pottery(made of a spinning plates or a spinning wheel) which occupies the absolute majority of relics is basically inherited the tradition of Goguryeo, and The Suje pottery(made with hand) inherited the tradition of Malgal. However, there are also things made of spinning plates or spinning wheels among the Malgal Pottery, which are characteristic of the Balhae period.

Kraskino Castle is located on the coast, so it is not easy to excavate to the raw soil layer. The Korean and Russian excavation teams have sought a dual method of ‘expansion’ and ‘intensification excavation’ to compensate for these limitations. So in 2015, we were able to dig up from the surface to 2m 30cm deep. There were six living layers found, which increased the likelihood that people lived before Balhae. As a result of measuring the radiological age of charcoal from the soil layer, and the Goguryeo pottery from the bottom layer made it possible to see the time when Kraskino Castle was built.

Building method of the Pyungyang Castle in the Goguryeo period ⓒNortheast Asian History Network

Stone fortress during the Balhae period excavated in the Maritime Province

Investigations and research into stone fortress during the Balhae period excavated in the Maritime Province are led by Dr. O.V. Diyakova of IHAE FEBRAS. The area surveyed is significant in that it is a place where people can not reach the mountainous area of ​​the northeastern part of the Maritime Province. Most archaeologists at the Maritime Province focus on the southern part of the Maritime Province, the border region of Korea, Russia and China. However, Dr. Diyakova has been steadily investigating for decades in rugged mountainous areas, where people are hard to access. Currently, there are about 40 mountain fortress in the Maritime Province. In particular, the stone fortress during the Balhae period in the northeastern part can be seen in the Goguryeo architectures of fortress style divided into ‘stone fortress on the hill’ and ‘the site of fortress built on the hillside’. These findings have become important data for us.

Architectural technique of Stone fortress in the Maritime Province

Looking at the Stone fortress built during the Balhae period, stones were built on the top of the mountain, and Retaining Wall was not built. Stone fortress’ location favored a strategic advantage to see all the valleys and situations around the mountain, where there was a twisting slope leading to the top of the mountain. To build stones on these terrains, high technique was needed.

The robustness of Stone fortress depends on the way the stone is processed. Before building fortress, they built a base of 2 to 6 meters and built large stones that were properly processed on the base. Leaving the protrusions at the edge of the stone, the stones on top were planned to not move or fall. The stones were piled up like pyramids, making the size of the stone smaller as it went up, and each floor used a certain size of stone. So a square stone was raised on the lower part, a square stone that removed the angle of the corner in the center, and a thin and sharp stone on the upper part. The lower part of the stone wall was ladder-shaped, and no other materials except the stone were used at all. Geographically, and in terms of the characteristics of construction technology, Stone fortress in the Maria Province is completely consistent with that of Goguryeo.

This construction technique is considered to have been introduced at the time when Goguryeo people entered Balhae after the fall of Goguryeo. Dr. Diyakova emphasizes that ‘Goguryeo's Stone fortress construction technology is applied as it is’ in ‘the site of fortress on the hillside’. Through this, it can be confirmed that the construction tradition of Goguryeo was faithfully inherited to the site of fortress in the northeastern region of Maritime Province.