Principal Investigator: Dr. Luis A. Botella Sánchez

The research project focuses on collective identities on the Korean peninsula during the Three Kingdoms period (1st century BC – 10th century AD), considering the concept of spatial transition and its utility in this study. The transition of populations and individuals during the Three Kingdoms period is proposed as a tool for studying the mechanisms and outcome of the integration of new communities into the emerging peninsular states. Furthermore, its influence on the consolidation of greater social stratification is also observed. This project proposes to investigate the elites’ conception of political and social boundaries in relation to these expansive and assimilative processes. To do so, it proposes to analyze moments of spatial boundary transition represented in the Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms compiled by Kim Pusik between 1142 and 1146) and the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms compiled by the monk Iryon during the 1280s). By defining the two spaces that are transitioned and the turning point that marks them, relevant information can be obtained about the assimilation and/or segregation of groups, as well as social segregation during the Three Kingdoms Period. This center-focused view is contrasted with the reality of a border space where state and pre-state societies would be interacting, as in the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula.