뉴스레터

Since its establishment in 2006, the Northeast Asian History Foundation has carried out annual excavation projects for the Yeomju Fortress of Balhae in Kraskino, jointly with the Russian Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnology of Peoples of the Far East. Located in the southern tip of present-day Primorsky Krai in Russia, Kraskino is where Korean settlers formed a village in the late 19th century. At that time, this village was called Yenchu or Yeonchu, until it was renamed Kraskino after Russia's advance into the East. The name 'Yenchu' is derived from 'Yeomju (鹽州),' one of the sixty-two provinces of Balhae, which was the gateway to the Silla Road (新羅道) and the Japan Road (日本道). Presently, Yeomju is a flatland fortress about 1.2 kilometers in circumference, located where Tsukanovka, i.e. the Yeomju River, streams into the Posyet Bay.

On July 15, 2015, two days after arrival at the Kraskino village, we held a groundbreaking ceremony of offering to the spirits of our ancestors, the sky, and the land, a ritual that signifies the beginning of an excavation. We enter into each project with a hope to make many discoveries, but what we will find remains unknown until we actually dig up the ground and remove the soil.

Since there are few, if any, extant documents written by the people of Balhae, we start each excavation hoping to discover a time capsule containing documents and records. We have been waiting to discover written relics in the Yeomju Fortress. Even though no such relic to speak of has been found, the waiting itself is fun. Imagine a day when we will finally discover box-loads of documents that will show the glory of Balhae to the world! Waiting for that day is a common, unspoken mission of the Korea-Russia joint excavation team. A mission! While waiting to see that historic day in the Yeomju Fortress, the best preserved of Balhae sites and whose name appears in literature, the scholars were already quitely communicating their dreams to the nature around them.

A Good Combination of Deeper and Expanded Excavations

To get to the Yeomju Fortress, we cross the Yeomju River by raft and then walk quickly for about twenty minutes. The path leading to the excavation site and the Fortress, and the lush green vegetation scattered all over within the Fortress, seem to be alive with the spirits of the deported Koreans. Since some Koreans built a settlement here after crossing the Duman River in the 19th century, this area had been home to Koreans, until they were deported to Central Asia in the 1930s. In other words, this is the scene of the Korean diaspora. The reed and wormwood fields that flanked the path leading to the Fortress seemed as though they were trying to whisper something and carry it in the scent and wind of a thousand years to the descendents of the people of Balhae who came back here as things had come full circle.

This year, twenty years after the first Korea-Russia joint excavation project, deeper and extended excavations were combined to produce some good results. The deeper excavation resulted in the first confirmation of soil layers that dated back to times spanning from the establishment to the fall of Balhae. These soil layers are important archaeological evidence, not only of the entire history of Balhae but also of the fact that Balhae succeeded to Koguryo. In addition, the topsoil survey for the entire Fortress and the expanded excavation of the administrative region, which had been confirmed time and again before, led to the discovery of precious relics of the people of Balhae, including the bronze camel statue and the flat bottle.

The Korean patriot Ahn Jung-geun cried "Hooray!" three times, expressing his thrill after shooting Ito Hirobumi, the one responsible for Japan's invasion of Korea, to death at Harbin Station in 1909. Before setting out on the mission, Mr. Ahn pledged an alliance with eleven equally patriotic men to work together toward the success of the mission, by cutting a finger and writing an oath in blood, in none other than this Kraskino village. Before setting out on the project, the excavation team visited the monument and site of this blood alliance. Honoring and paying respect to the spirits of our ancestors, we prayed for the success of the excavation project.

A group of storage facilities, roads, and cornerstones in District 50

bronze camel statue

And fifteen days later, we finally experienced a joy no less thrilling than what Mr. Ahn must have felt crying hooray, as we discovered a 'bronze camel statue,' the first of its kind ever excavated in any of the Balhae sites. This camel statue, along with the camel bone excavated in 2012, is a valuable relic that proves Balhae's exchange with the Western Regions through the Yeomju Fortress. No larger than one third of the length of a ring finger, this small statue features a two-humped camel in its entirety, a testament to the sophisticated craftsmanship of the artisan of Balhe who made it. We were all touched by this discovery, feeling rewarded by the Yeomju Fortress for a month of working patiently in the blazing sun, getting soaked in sweat and our skin all tanned.

Dreaming of Taking the Inter-Korean Train for an Excavation Trip to the Yeomju Fortress

a flat bottle

The Yeomju Fortress excavation this year also confirmed the fact that the people of Balhae installed spaces for common storage facilities in their living quarters. In addition, a flat bottle was dug up, which allows us to speculate that there was exchange between Balhae and the fleets of Jang bo-go from Silla through the sea using the Yeomju Fortress as a hub. Another important result to mention is that it was confirmed once again, as it had been the year before, that the Yeomju Fortress was a city with sections and roads, much like the Sanggyeong Fortress.

The year 2016 will mark a decade since the first joint excavation of the Yeomju Fortress, as well as the establishment of the NAHF. On this occasion, there will be an international conference where Korean and Russian scholars will participate in presenting the excavation results. The joint Yeomju Fortress excavation project organized by the NAHF has been a milestone for the excavation of Balhae sites in East Asia. Hopefully, this will hasten the day when Korean scholars will visit the sites of Balhae in China or North Korea and explore or excavate them together with Chinese or North Korean scholars. I can't wait for the day when the two Koreas will be connected by a railroad so that we can go to and from the Yeomju Fortress by crossing the Duman River by way of the Silla Road.

On our last day in the Yeomju Fortress excavation site, we were about to leave in the morning after holding a ceremony offering to the nature around the Yeomju Fortress, just as we had done on our first day, when came a thunder, a bolt of lightening, and sheets of rain, as if seeing off us, saying, 'Good-bye! And come back again, the descendents of Balhae!'

The soil layers in the Yeomju Fortress showing the entire Balhae period