Abstract

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.

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