Lecture by Elisabeth Chabanol: "Kaesong Fortress - North Korea"

The IMPRESSIONS Library Gallery invites you:

Lecture by Elisabeth Chabanol: "Kaesong Fortress - North Korea"

Saturday 15 September at 17h

Free admission

Élisabeth Chabanol arrived as a student and teacher at 15 October 1986 in Korea, which she left only occasionally at the defense of her diplomas in France. Specialist in archeology, art history and museology, his work focused on the study of the sites of the ancient capitals of the Korean peninsula and determined his various resorts: Yusŏng and Taejŏn, close to Kongju and Puyŏ, ancient capitals of the kingdom of Paekche; Kyŏngju (Kingdom of Silla), Seoul (Kingdoms of Paekche and Chosŏn) and from 2003, Kaesong (capital of Koryŏ and early Chosŏn Kingdom).

Her field research also took her to Mongolia and Manchuria with her colleagues from China, Japan and South Korea. After two years of research at the Gyeongju National Museum, which allowed her to complete her thesis on funeral systems in Silla, followed by several months in a South Korean press company, she joined the School. French Far East (EFEO). Senior lecturer, she is from 2002 responsible for the EFEO Center in Seoul. From 2003, she undertook research in the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK), in the archives and at the Kaesong site, capital of Koryŏ (918-1392). In 2011, under the auspices of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French-North Korean Archaeological Mission in Kaesong (MAK), which she heads, was created. The mission brings together French, Cambodian and North Korean historians, archaeologists and architects, its scientific partner being the DPRK's National Authority for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. One of the main focuses of the mission's work is the location, documentation and dating of the Kaesong fortresses, completed by the excavation of particularly significant points, gates or walls.
The Great Southern Gate, Namdaemun, of the most recent fortress, the 14th-century Inner Fortress, was the first site studied, especially since it is now the icon of Kaesong's urban heritage, both for its configuration and its own chronology only for its relations with the surrounding urban fabric and associated roads and networks. While the historical texts mention partially the construction of this gate (1391-1393), the results of the archaeological excavations conducted by 2011's Xesum archaeological mission in Kaesong have revealed much more complex architectural changes to the architectural structure. These testify to a much longer history of the city, reflecting its permanence over the centuries, including before and after the Koryŏ era.