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East Asia · Confederacies, Han and the steppe

Byeonhan confederacy

drawn on the map AD 1–566

Byeonhan (弁韓; also Byeonjin) was one of the three Samhan confederacies in the southern Korean peninsula, c. 1st century BCE – 4th century CE, occupying the Nakdong River basin. It comprised about twelve statelets.

Shown on the map
AD 1–566
Peak area
14k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

Byeonhan (弁韓; also Byeonjin) was one of the three Samhan confederacies in the southern Korean peninsula, c. 1st century BCE – 4th century CE, occupying the Nakdong River basin. It comprised about twelve statelets. Byeonhan was famed for iron production, exporting iron to the Wa (Japan), the Lelang commandery, and neighbors; iron ingots served as a form of currency. Its polities were gradually absorbed into the Gaya confederacy and later Silla. Culturally it shared much with Jinhan.

Common questions

What was Byeonhan confederacy?
Byeonhan (弁韓; also Byeonjin) was one of the three Samhan confederacies in the southern Korean peninsula, c. 1st century BCE – 4th century CE, occupying the Nakdong River basin. It comprised about twelve statelets.
When is Byeonhan confederacy shown on the map?
The border data draws Byeonhan confederacy AD 1–566. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
How large was Byeonhan confederacy?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Byeonhan confederacy covered about 14,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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