Gaya confederacy

Gaya (, ka.ja) was a Korean confederacy of territorial polities in the Nakdong River basin of southern Korea, growing out of the Byeonhan confederacy of the Samhan period. The traditional period used by historians for Gaya chronology is AD 42–532. According to archaeological evidence in the third and fourth centuries some of the city-states of Byeonhan evolved into the Gaya confederacy, which was later annexed by Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The individual polities that made up the Gaya confederacy have been characterized as small city-states. The material culture remains of Gaya culture mainly consist of burials and their contents of mortuary goods that have been excavated by archaeologists. Archaeologists interpret mounded burial cemeteries of the late third and early fourth centuries such as Daeseong-dong in Gimhae and Bokcheon-dong in Busan as the royal burial grounds of Gaya polities. Although most commonly referred to as Gaya (가야; 加耶, 伽耶, 伽倻; kaja), probably due to the imprecision of transcribing Korean words into hanja, historical sources use a variety of names, including Garak (가락; 駕洛, 迦落; kaɾak), Gara (가라; 加羅, 伽羅, 迦羅, 柯羅; kaɾa), Garyang (가량;加良; kaɾjaŋ), and Guya (구야; 狗耶; kuja). According to Christopher I. Beckwith, "The spelling Kaya is the modern Korean reading of the characters used to write the name; the pronunciation /kara/ (transcriptionally *kala) is certain." In Japanese, Gaya is referred to as Mimana (任那), a name with considerable political connotations. However, a word kara (から, 韓 'Korea', 唐 '[Tang] China', 漢 '[Han] China'), which is probably from the name of Gaya on the Korean Peninsula of antiquity, has been preserved in Japanese with the sense "China or Korea, mainland East Asia" and, more recently, an even more vague sense of "the nations overseas, foreign country." Linguists, including Vovin and Janhunen, suggest that Japonic languages were spoken in large parts of the southern Korean Peninsula. According to Vovin, these "Peninsular Japonic languages" were replaced by Koreanic-speakers (possibly belonging to the Han-branch).

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Related concepts (16)

Samhan

Samhan, or Three Han, is the collective name of the Byeonhan, Jinhan, and Mahan confederacies that emerged in the first century BC during the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, or Samhan, period. Located in the central and southern regions of the Korean Peninsula, the Samhan confederacies eventually merged and developed into the Baekje, Gaya, and Silla kingdoms. The name "Samhan" also refers to the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Sam (三) is a Sino-Korean word meaning "three" and Han is a Korean word meaning "great (one), grand, large, much, many".

Jinhan confederacy

Jinhan (tɕin.ɦan) was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD in the southern Korean Peninsula, to the east of the Nakdong River valley, Gyeongsang Province. Jinhan was one of the Samhan (or "Three Hans"), along with Byeonhan and Mahan. Apparently descending from the Jin state of southern Korea, Jinhan was absorbed by the later Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Jinhan, like the other Samhan confederacies, arose out of the confusion and migration following the fall of Wiman Joseon in 108 BC.

Byeonhan confederacy

Byeonhan (, pjʌn.ɦan), also known as Byeonjin, (, pjʌn.dʑin) was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the beginning of the Common Era to the 4th century in the southern Korean peninsula. Byeonhan was one of the Samhan (or "Three Hans"), along with Mahan and Jinhan. This early part of the Three Kingdoms period is sometimes called the Proto–Three Kingdoms period. Byeonhan, like the other Samhan confederacies, appears to be descended from the Jin state of southern Korea.