Gojoseon

Gojoseon was an ancient Korean kingdom, considered the first proper nation of the Korean people. According to the Samguk Yusa and other Korean medieval-era records, Gojoseon is said to have been founded in 2333 BC by the legendary Dangun, who is said to be the Posterity of Heaven (天孫, 천손). It was centered in the basins of Liao and Northern part of the Korean Peninsula.

Archaeological evidence of Gojoseon are found in the transition from the Jeulmun pottery to the Mumun pottery around 1500 BC, when groups of semi-sedentary small-scale agriculturalists occupied most of the Korean peninsula. Local bronze production began around the 8th century BC. Modern historians generally believe it developed into a powerful federation or kingdom between 7th and 4th centuries BC.

Go(고, 古), which distinguishes it from the later Joseon Dynasty, means "Old" or "Ancient"; Joseon, as it is called in contemporaneous writings, is also romanized as Chosŏn.

People

The Gojoseon people lived northeast of ancient Manchuria and are regarded as the first direct Korean ancestral line recorded in writing. The people of Gojoseon were recorded in several Chinese texts as one of the Dongyi, meaning "eastern barbarians".

The people of Gojoseon were the descendants of migrating Altaic tribes that settled in Manchuria, far eastern China, and the Korean Peninsula. Gojoseon eventually consolidated in lower Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula.

Location

Initially, Gojoseon was probably located in Liaoning, but around 400 BC, moved nearby Pyongyang, the capital of modern North Korea.

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