A History of Korea Read Online Free PDF Page A

millet, barnyard millet, barley, and beans. By the eighth century BC rice cultivation had begun in some warm regions. A large amount of carbonated rice, excavated at Hunam-ni in Y ŏ ju city in the South Han River basin, at Songgung-ni in Puy ŏ county in the K ŭ m River basin, and in shell heaps in Kimhae city in the lower reaches of the Naktong River, suggests that rice was brought into Korea’s southern and western coastal areas from China’s Yangtze River valley. Crescent-shaped stone knives seem to have been used at harvest time to cut rice stalks, and grooved stone axes served to cut down trees and turn over the soil preparatory to planting.
    In the Bronze Age round pit dwellings, or dugouts, gradually went out of use and were replaced by huts. The huts, rectangular in shape and built on stone foundations with supporting pillars, were partitioned into rooms serving different purposes. Dwelling sites were grouped into settlements. A cluster of dwelling sites has been found in a single location, suggesting that settlements increasingly grew.
    Bronze Age men used delicately polished stone swords and arrowheads as well as bronze swords and spears to hunt animals or conduct wars. The existence of these bronze weapons implies that conquest by warfare was common in this period and that Bronze Age people could presumably gain easy ascendancy over Neolithic men who were armed with stone weapons. At the same time, as a small number of influential individuals monopolized bronze farming implements and weapons, they were able to produce more plentiful agricultural products and seize greater spoils from war. In these ways they commanded greater power and wealth, and gradually emerged as chieftains. These chieftains were armed with bronze spears and mounted horses decorated with bronze ornaments. To demonstrate their authority, these privileged individuals were ornamented with mandolin-shaped copper daggers, multi-knobbed coarse-patterned mirrors, and bronze bells. These articles, which lent prestige and authority to the personages who wielded great power, were used as ritual symbols of authority for the chieftains, who fancied themselves as the sons of heaven.
    When these chieftains died, their bodies were buried in megalithic tombs such as dolmens or in stone cists, which were underground burial chambers lined with stones. Because these tombs were reserved for the ruling class,burial practices reflected increasing social stratification. Dolmens, which have been found in great numbers in almost every part of the Korean peninsula, are mainly constructed in two basic forms—the table style and the board style. The table style, often called the northern style because of its distribution predominantly in the areas north of the Han River, was constructed by placing several upright stones in a rough square to support a flat capstone. The board style, often known as the southern style because of its widespread discovery in areas south of the Han River, employed a large boulder as a capstone placed atop several smaller rocks. A third type of dolmen tomb, distributed throughout the Korean peninsula in larger numbers, has no supporting stones, and the capstone is placed directly atop the underground burial chamber. Corpses were buried in dolmen tombs together with bronze daggers and pottery that the men had used during their lifetime.
    Along with numerous menhir, or large upright stone monuments, these dolmen tombs represent the megalithic culture in Korea. Some dolmen tombs weigh dozens or even hundreds of tons. The individuals who were buried in these gigantic tombs clearly wielded great authority to command the labor services of vast numbers of people to construct the tombs, and are therefore considered to have been tribal chieftains.
    The appearance of dolmen tombs is unique. The round, flat capstone presumably symbolized heaven and the square upright stones represented the earth; people at the time believed that the souls of their