Rice,Ethnicity, and the Collation of Archaeobotanical Data for Prehistoric Korea

Nationalism and archaeology are universally and almost unavoidably intertwined. The multilevel influence of nationalism not only delimits the legitimate interpretations of archaeological data but also determines the retrieval, analysis and dissemination of data. This point is illustrated in the present study with a historical overview of archaeobotanical data collation at four prehistoric sites, two in North Korea and two in South Korea, that were excavated between 1957 and 1981. The paper examines the persistent and increasing archaeological interest since the early 1970s in the search for rice, a crop that constitutes an integral part of the Korean ethnic identity. The remains of rice have tended to receive more scholarly attention, be subject to extended discussion, and be more widely publicized, compared to the relatively neglected research on the remains of other “miscellaneous” crops. This demonstrates that botanical remains from archaeological sites, often presented as an outcome of scientific scrutiny, are a social product and that greater attention needs to be paid to local archaeological concerns before the data are compared internationally or across different research traditions.