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¡Ü Samhan
Period
The Samhan Period (a.k.a. Three Han) from the
3rd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D. was the
stage of political confederations of small polities
centering on Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan before
the development of the Samguk Period (a.k.a. Three
Kingdoms Period). This period is featured by the
wide spread of iron tools, the production of wajil
(¡°rooftile-like quality¡±) pottery due to the introduction
of new pottery manufacturing technology, and the
formation of stratified societies. And Samhan
was the matrix of the ancient states of Baekje,
Silla and Gaya.
¡Ü Samhan Society and Bronze
Culture
The Samhan Period is divided largely into three
sub-periods: Early, Middle, and Late. The Early
Samhan Period was the time when the cast iron
tool making technology, developed in the Warring
States of China, was introduced into the Samhan
regions on the foundation of the Korean-style
bronze dagger culture.
During the Middle Samhan Period, iron tools came
into wide use based on the iron tool production
technology from the Han dynasty of China, while
the number of bronze tools decreased remarkably.
The pottery of this period is characterized by
the early wajil pottery consisting mainly of pottery
with triangular clay stripe, flask-shaped pottery,
and horn-handled pottery. The wooden coffin tomb
was the main burial mode.
During the Late Samhan Period, large-size wooden
outer coffin tombs were constructed, and the late
wajil pottery replaced the preceding pottery types.
Metal artifacts of the Early Samhan Period were,
for the most part, bronze ritual equipments such
as bronze daggers, fine-lined mirrors, and bells,
which belonged to the assemblage of the Korean-style
bronze dagger culture, while iron artifacts were
limited to the category of working tool. These
bronze artifacts have been rarely discovered from
residential remains, but yielded from burials.
This supports that bronze artifacts were of no
practical use but served as symbol of authority
and status. Accordingly, the tomb occupants in
the burials with bronze artifacts can be attributed
to the ruling classes such as chief.
By the way, considering that the majority of bronze
artifacts were ritual equipments like bells and
mirrors, chiefs of the Samhan society may have
served as priests as well. So, it is recognizable
that religion and politics were strongly united
in the Samhan society. The Bronze ritual equipments
fell into a decline and religion was gradually
separated from politics, however, as iron tools
became wide-spread and iron weapons made remarkable
progress.
The Korean-style bronze dagger culture was a bronze-based
culture manufacturing iron tools as well, not
only limited to bronze tools. This culture existed
from the 4th century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D.
and had the bronze artifact assemblage consisting
of Korean-style daggers, spearheads, dagger-axes,
dirks, fine-lined mirrors, bells, etc. These artifacts
have been mainly excavated from wooden coffins
in the south of the Daedonggang River. In and
after the 2nd century B.C. when iron tools came
into wide use, the fine-lined bronze mirror was
replaced with the Han mirror (Han dynasty bronze
mirror) and became extinct, while the bronze spearhead
and the dagger-axe lost their practicality and
became more decorative for their ritual and ornamental
uses
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| Korean-Style Bronze Dagger |
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| Bronze Bells |
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| Korean-Style
Bronze Daggers |
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| Black Burnished Pottery |
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| Bronze Artifacts and Stone Arrowheads |
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| Oracle Bone |
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| Mumun Pottery and Black Burnished Pottery |
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