The new article "Negotiating power and community in Early Baekje: Collective action and urban transformation in the Han River Basin, Korea", by Ph.D. Student Seungyeon Hong and Dr. Jennifer Birch, was published in Archaeological Research in Asia journal. Read the article here.

 

The paper aims to explore how emerging ruling groups and local commoners interacted during the creation of a new social order in the early state, based on collective action approaches. Focusing on the Han River Basin of the Korean Peninsula—the political center of the early Baekje state of Three Kingdoms Period of Korea(c. 100 BCE–475 CE)—the study incorporates Bayesian chronological modeling of radiocarbon dates with a changing pattern of urban plannings. The long-term urban transformation shows varying levels of decision-making between rulers and commoners to address collective action problems, such as managing agricultural production or defending against external threats in the region. This case study of early Korean state challenges former explanation about state formation that assume a unidirectional progression toward abruptly urbanized, rigidly hierarchical political structures.