Bronze Age, Lower Han Dynasty and Early Iron Age in South Korea

Currently, the lower limit of the Bronze Age is generally believed to be around 300 BC based on the appearance of the three-shaped bronze sword. And the period between 300 and 0 BC, when fine-grained bronze swords and clay pottery coexisted, is classified as the ‘Early Iron Age’. However, this common belief is problematic in that it is highly likely that three-shaped bronze swords appeared before the 5th century BC, that the lower limit of the Songguk-ri culture is around 200 BC, and that circular clay pottery coexists with the culture of the late Bronze Age. According to carbon dating, the Songguk-ri culture, the circular clay pottery culture, and the late Bronze Age settlements disappeared around 200 to 150 BC, and the Proto-Three Kingdoms period settlements in the central and western regions appeared around 200 BC. Therefore, the lower age of the Bronze Age and the upper age of the Proto-Three Kingdoms period are around 200 BC, and the name of the period following the Bronze Age, ‘Early Iron Age’, is no longer a valid age name. It is reasonable to call the stage in which fine-shaped bronze swords and circular clay pottery coexisted the late Bronze Age or the late Bronze Age.