The introduction and development of iron production in Korea: A survey

Abstract

Abstract This paper gives a general survey of the origins and development of iron production and of the iron assemblage in Korea from c. 300 BC to AD 300. China, and to a lesser extent Manchuria and Siberia, were probably the sources of the first Korean iron, around the fifth to third centuries BC. Exact dates for the first widespread use of iron are difficult to establish, as are the precise sources and the degree of external influence. Diffusion within Korea, expansion of the early assemblage, and local experimentation led to the development of localised industries, particularly in the south. Various authors attribute different kinds and degrees of influence to the Chinese in the peninsula. These industries undoubtedly played an important part in the development of the early Korean states, the exact nature of which remains to be described.