Customer Reviews

The Archaeology of Korea (Cambridge World Archaeology)

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Ok, so before I picked this book up I didn't even know what Jomon-pottery was, and while I read this book I had to make frequent reference to wikipedia. However, I really did learn a lot about the archaeology of Korea while I read it.

I guess due to the nature of the evidence, pottery was covered in special depth, and other kinds of artifacts were related to the pottery. I especially appreciated the cautious speculations about religion in stone-age and bronze-age Korea; that's why I read the book. Now, when I visit a museum here in Korea, even if I can't understand the labels, I know what I'm looking at pretty well: that's another big bonus for me.

It's a few years old now. I think that genetic work probably sheds some light on the migrations into the peninsula, and there must've been a lot of archaeological research since this book has been written. Soon, I hope, North Korea will open up a bit and more research will go on there; the sites there are probably very interesting. I hope a more updated version comes out sometime soon.

The bibliography was also very helpful to me.

I have no idea what a well-informed scholar would make of this book, however; and when I read reviews by people who don't know about things that I know about, I can tell...

UPDATE: I've now discovered Gina L. Barnes' "The Rise of Civilization in East Asia: The Archaeology of China, Korea and Japan." I highly recommend it. It's easier to read, somehow inherently more interesting, and the regional coverage adds a lot of useful context. It spans a greater time period with less detail, but its fascinating insights really do make up for the loss of detail. Unless for some reason you are definitely interested in Nelson's book, I recommend Barnes.