Chuncheon fails the test on cultural heritage management

Excavation site at Camp Page left flooded; additional artifacts found at provincial office construction site go unreported

Excavated remains in Zone 1 of the Camp Page archaeological site were found submerged Wednesday, with waterproof sheeting that had covered previously unearthed remains removed, according to the Jungdo Headquarters. [Provided by Jungdo Headquarters]

A civic group that previously reported the discovery of hundreds of artifacts at the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province's new headquarters construction site in Chuncheon's Goeun-ri has now flagged another problem: excavated remains at the Camp Page archaeological site in Chuncheon were found flooded and left unprotected in late October, the group said, prompting it to file a report with the Cultural Heritage Administration.

The Chuncheon Jungdo Prehistoric Site Preservation Headquarters — known as the Jungdo Headquarters — said Wednesday that remains excavated at the Camp Page site in September were found in October to be submerged without waterproof sheeting in place. The group urged the Cultural Heritage Administration and Chuncheon city to conduct an emergency on-site inspection and take preservation measures.

Chuncheon city is currently conducting additional exploratory excavations at the site through an archaeological institution. Precision excavations have been under way at the Camp Page site since 2019, and thousands of artifacts have already been unearthed. The total excavation cost stands at about 8.8 billion won ($6.64 million).

At a 2023 expert review meeting convened by what was then the Cultural Heritage Administration, specialists gave the upper-layer remains at Camp Page a high score of 86.7 points, formally designating them a "large-scale urban heritage site from the Unified Silla to Joseon periods" and clearly recommending that preservation of the original form be the guiding principle.

Jungdo, confirmed as a prehistoric urban heritage site in Chuncheon

Earlier, a large prehistoric urban heritage site was discovered on Jungdo island in Chuncheon. Reports have since emerged that dozens of additional artifacts were found in the surface layer at the provincial headquarters construction site in Goeun-ri, beyond the 388 pieces officially recovered by Chuncheon city from that same layer. The finds have prompted speculation that not only Jungdo — already confirmed by the Cultural Heritage Administration as a prehistoric urban heritage site — but Chuncheon as a whole may have been a vast urban settlement stretching from prehistoric times through the ancient and Unified Silla periods, spanning thousands of years.

Kim Jong-mun, head of the Jungdo Headquarters, said excavations on Jungdo have already provided proof, and that recent cluster discoveries of artifacts in surface layers across multiple parts of Chuncheon suggest the city may have been a prehistoric and ancient metropolis on a par with Gyeongju and Buyeo. "If Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province and Chuncheon city excavate, investigate and restore the sites with the same care and legal rigor applied to places like Gyeongju, Buyeo, Gongju and Hanseong Wiryeseong, Chuncheon could become a world-class city of history and cultural heritage," he said.

This year, Chuncheon city carried out additional excavations to conduct precision surveys of the middle-layer remains. As of October, the city is conducting exploratory digs to investigate remains in the lower layer beneath the middle-layer site.

The Jungdo Headquarters said it is highly likely that conducting additional investigations at the Camp Page site while backfilling previously excavated remains, running excavators over them, removing waterproof sheeting that had been installed over unearthed remains and leaving those remains submerged constitutes a serious violation of the law.

The top photo shows conditions on Sept. 28; the bottom photo shows conditions Wednesday. [Provided by Jungdo Headquarters]

A comparison of photos taken by the Jungdo Headquarters at Zone 1 shows that the remains confirmed during the Sept. 28 survey had no boundary markings around them, and that by Wednesday the same remains were found submerged with no waterproof sheeting installed.

Buried cultural heritage requires active management and damage-prevention measures even after remains are identified during excavation. When remains are found submerged and left unprotected, the relevant authorities must promptly verify the site's condition and the adequacy of preservation measures — steps that Chuncheon city has either failed to take or taken in violation of the law.

Meanwhile, Chuncheon city announced it had recovered and processed 388 artifacts found at the access road construction site for the new provincial headquarters in Goeun-ri, and notified the contractor that work on the new headquarters building — halted for as long as 42 days — could resume.

The Jungdo Headquarters said the excavation covered only a portion of the construction site and was limited to the visible surface layer — an assessment reporters confirmed through on-site coverage.

Artifacts from Goeun-ri found in dense clusters visible to the naked eye in the surface layer [Ham Young-hoon]

The Jungdo Headquarters also said that after the 388 artifacts were recovered, dozens more were reported found at the site — yet Chuncheon city neither halted construction immediately nor reported the new finds to the Cultural Heritage Administration, as required by law and Cultural Heritage Administration guidelines.

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