Prof. Jang Sik Park (Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Hongik University in Korea) is the Visiting Scholar at the School of Anthropology. His visit is sponsored by Prof. David Killick. His research project is entitled "In search of the origin of Korean iron and bronze technologies "
Below is Prof Park's summary of his project.
"In his comments on my report summarizing the results of the metallographic examination of iron artifacts from a royal tomb in Gyongju, Korea, constructed in mid 5th century AD, John Verhoeven, my former advisor at Iowa State University said to me, “was the iron technology, based on the use of bloomery smelting and steelmaking by carburization, practiced in your country?” At the time, I did not realize his question was concerned about the origin of Korean iron technology, which, based on his knowledge, should be China. He found in my report, however, evidence in clear contrast to his expectation. Ever since I have been spending most of my time searching for alternative routes for technological transmission to the Korean peninsula, in close collaboration with archaeologists working in Mongolia, Central Asia, India and Indonesia. My research in the last 16 years has led me to believe that the interaction sphere in antiquity may have been much more extensive and complicated than could be inferred from the data currently available. I have identified some evidence supporting this new interpretation, thanks mainly to the support from many collaborators and advisors. I am now engaged in testing the theory viewing Chinese influence on the Xiongnu development in Mongolia as much less critical than previously proposed. I pay close attention to Xiongnu bronze and iron objects to characterize the associated technological traditions as compared with those practiced in contemporary China. A similar research is also under way to find evidence of probable Indian influence on the rise of iron technology in South Korea. I would be happy to share my experience with SoA students and faculties interested in ancient metallurgy.
My stay here at SoA is a critical moment in my research career as I am surrounded by great colleagues able to guide me in laboratories equipped with required research facilities and also in classrooms with fundamental archaeological theories. I use the Laboratory for Traditional Technology (Anthro Haury Rm #115) for metallographic sample preparation and the Multipurpose Lab (Anthro Haury Rm #411) for microstructure investigation, each for approximately 10 hours a week. The work in these 2 labs consists of examining slag objects from Korea and Kazakhstan with a specific purpose to infer the smelting technologies involved. As for other UA facilities I use the AMS lab and the ICP-MS lab at UA where I have submitted some Mongolian and Indian samples for dating and provenance."
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