Relics of Past Give Proof that Balhae Is Kokuryo’s Successor

Russian scientists are receiving unusual interest from the academic world because of their discovery of remains from an unearthing expedition in the old territory of Balhae, including the Russian territory in Manchuria, which can prove the relationship between Kokuryo and Balhae.

The museum of Korea University in Seoul on Wednesday, said, “We invited Boalding, the director of archeological laboratory of the Russian Institute of Science, his assistant Geller, and Lickytin and held a meeting for the interim findings of Balhae’s remains around the Russian territory in Manchuria.”

This was the first time to define the relationship between two countries from the actual remains, even though there have been many similar assumptions.

Since the late 1990s, Russian scholars have found several ruins of Kokuryo in their territory in Manchuria.

During the meeting, they reported to witnesses about “on-dol,” which was Kokuryo’s unique heating system in Balhae’s old territory, and verified the similarity to an earthenware which followed Kokuryo’s ways.

They also mentioned, “We found the same type of items in the Korean museum which we did not know how they were used in the past.” adding, “Russian scientists admit that Balhae’s culture succeeded Kokuryo’s.” Chun Ho-sup, a researcher at the museum of Korea University, said, “These results, which were proven by the scholars from the third country through their unearthing efforts, will be very precious data for our recent studies of the history of Kokuryo.”

Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com