• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.4-29
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to grasp the commencement date of Korean-type bronze dagger through the chronology of Chinese data. It focuses on the fact that the same section polishing technique appears both in Korean type bronze dagger and Dongzhou type bronze dagger. Dongzhou type bronze dagger in Anqiu Shandong, in which A1 type section polishing technique is observed, was said to have been collected remains in 1958, but the clear excavation cannot be identified. Therefore, this study presents Tomb No.1 Zuojiawa Jinan, Dongzhou type bronze dagger, and associated products. As associated products, bronze weapon and bronze ware were excavated, whose periods are estimated to be in the Spring and Autumn period, the transition period of Warring States, and the former part of the China's Warring States. Accordingly, the Korean bronze dagger, excavated in the remains of the Han Peninsula appears to have run parallel with the Dongzhou type bronze dagger of the A1 type section polishing technique, excavated in China for a fixed period. In addition, the chronology of Tomb No. 61MI grave in Wanrongmiaoqian, Shanxi is estimated to range from the former part to the middle part of the China's Warring States, which is identified to be connected to the A1 type section polishing technique. Examining the data of the relative date, we can find out that the Commencement Period of the Korean type bronze dagger Culture is seen to be the transition period and the former part of the China's Warring States, which is estimated to be the 5th and 4th centuries BC. This chronology is followed by Tomb No.6512 Zhengjiawazi Shenyang, recorded as the 6th century B.C. which reveals that Liaoning type bronze dagger culture and Korean-typed Bronze Dagger Culture are naturally connected. Furthermore, the A1 type section polishing technique was distributed in the southwestern area of the Korean peninsula and Shandong, China, while the A2 type section polishing technique was distributed in the southern area of the Korean peninsula, Shanxi-Province in China, and Northern Kyushu region in Japan. Seen from the weapon-shaped bronze ware of the section polishing technique, Shanxi area(Central Plains area), China. the southwestern area of the Korean peninsula (northwest area), and Northern Kyushu region in Japan are set up as one traffic road(spreading route). This demonstrates that the section polishing technique emerged around the Han Peninsular, spreading the technique regionally.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 2010

A bronze dagger excavated from the historical site at Bongili in Gyeongju was examined for its microstructure and chemical compositions. The results show that it was forged out of the Cu-10 weight % Sn alloy having no lead. The application of forging in fabrication and the use of an unleaded alloy distinguish this artifact from other bronze daggers that have been reported in Korea, the majority of which were cast from leaded Cu-Sn alloys. This dagger is a rare and valuable archaeological material suggesting a unique bronze technology practiced in ancient Gyeongju area.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.191-197
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• 1992

An ancient Korean bronze dagger excavated from Yongjai-ri, Iksan-kun, presumed to be manufactured in the pre-historical age, was examined by means of chemical analysis, energy dispersive spectrometry, optical and scanning electron microscopy. Also the measurement of lead isotope ratios was carried out in order to predict the site where raw materials were produced. The composition was identified as 75.3% Cu, 17.1% Sn and 6.8% Pb which was a typical composition of Korean bronze dagger. The microstructure was consisted of ${\alpha}$ and (${\alpha}+{\delta}$) eutectoid. The (${\alpha}+{\delta}$) eutectoid can be easily corroded in comparison with ${\alpha}$. The segregation was frequently observed in the interior of the sample. According to the lead isotopes ratios, raw materials have possibility to be from North China.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.12
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• pp.19-24
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• 2011

This study presents an investigation into the conservation process of an iron dagger and scabbard, which are a lacquered scabbard and a dagger inserted in it, excavated in the Daho-ri relic of Changwon by Gimhae National Museum. The bronze dagger whose condition was poor due to corrosion was coated with Incralac, an intensifier, to reveal the surface patterns through a microscope. The lacquered scabbard was removed of foreign substances on the surface and coated with HPC 2%(in water) to protect the film. Applied onto the surface from which foreign substances were removed was Caparol Binder 5%(in water) two to three times to form a protective film and then faced with Korean paper. Once it was fixed in a polyurethane foam in a stable manner, it was turned over to receive the same process on the back. Three layers of Korean paper were attached to the back of the scabbard to support the thin artifact. HPC 2%(in water), which was applied to the scabbard, was also applied to the iron dagger inside for cementing effect. After all the processes were completed, the artifact was put in a transparent acrylic box for future display.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.13
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• pp.51-58
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• 2012

The Conservation Science Team of the National Museum of Korea has carried out the conservation on the mandolin-type bronze sword that was excavated from Weolnae-dong, Yeosu as had been requested by the Research Center of Dolmens in Northeast Asia. The mandolin-type bronze sword from Weolnae-dong, Yeosu is accounted to be the longest one among all the bronze swords of the same type that have ever been excavated until now and it was in a treated condition with the primary conservation treatment already achieved. Due to the corrosion in progress, it was in a very brittle condition being in two separate parts of the upper and lower parts. With the upper part exposed and the lower part with earth, they were urgently collected. The Conservation Science Team carried out the conservation treatment on them by connecting the lower part of the mandolin-type bronze sword to the upper part after making the lower part exposed, and then by using an estimated restoration method for lost portions. When carrying out the conservation treatment, the glass fibers of 10 wt% Paraloid B-72 (in Xylene) was used as a method for strengthening the brittle artifact, and a non-destructive analysis was carried out to identify the ingredients using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.154-169
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• 2021

The establishment of the Bronze Age is one of the most important achievements suggested by Korean archaeology shortly after liberation. There is no doubt that Moo-Byung Yoon is the representative figure, who refuted the ambiguous Eneolithic age (金石倂用期) created by Japanese scholars and settled the concept of the Bronze Age. In this article, the author takes a new look at Yoon's institutional role in studying the Bronze Age in Korea. Until now, Yoon's representative achievement has been his typology of the Slender dagger of the Korean Peninsula. However, it is not less important that Yoon also established the Bronze Age concept with the excavation of a dolmen and a Bronze Age subterranean dwelling in Oksok-ni, Paju during the 1960s. Of course, it was not a personal assignment for Yoon. He was aided by Prof. Kim Won-Yong's work, who had introduced newly excavated materials from North Korea and China; these materials gave some insight for establishing the Bronze Age concepts in the 1960 and 1970s. Kim's suggestion about the possibility of a Korean Bronze Age led to Yoon's refined typological study on Korea's bronze wares. However, Yoon's excessive schematic classification of artifacts and reliance on the Japanese chronology became an obstacle for making the Korean Bronze Age isolated from East Asia. As a result, it is regrettable that his research led to the "cultural lag" phenomenon of Bronze Age research. Meanwhile, Japanese archaeology, which had influenced Yoon, also faced a major change. In 2003, the Japanese archaeological community revised the Yayoi culture's beginning around the 1,000 BC. This means a shift in the perception that we should understand Japan's Bronze Age in the context of the East Asian continent. Of course, it is not appropriate to reevaluate or denigrate Yoon's research from the current view. Rather, it is necessary to recognize the limitations of Yoon's time and present a new path to research by combining the archaeological tradition of refining research on the relics he maintained with a new chronological view and a macro view of East Asian archaeology. This is why we should take a new glimpse into Yoon's research.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.48-101
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• 2010

This paper estimated the calendar date of pottery with ring-rim(粘土帶土器) with the radiocarbon dating. This was based on archaeological facts with comparing line relations and radiocarbon dates of Yayoi pottery(彌生土器). As a result, I understood that pottery with circle ring-rim(圓形粘土帶土器) appeared in BC 6c, pottery with triangle ringrim(三角形粘土帶土器) appeared at the time in BC 300 . Based on the calendar date and aspect of ironware and pottery in grave, I kept in BC 4c with appearance date of ironware. And I kept in BC 5c with appearance date of the slim bronze dagger culture. Korea and Japan common chronological order were built for the first time based on radiocarbon dates, line relations of pottery with ring-rim and Yayoi pottery. This is the calendar date to date back approximately 100~300 years from the existing the calendar date. Current periodization does not match in the calendar date when I built it newly. Therefore I suggested it as follows. Early iron age is from the first~middle part BC 4c to BC 100. And the latter half of Bronze age is from BC 6c to the front appearance of ironware. Then Songguk-ri type(松菊里式) becomes staudard type of pottery in the middle stage of Bronze age.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.219-226
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• 2021

We examined component analysis and lead isotope ratio analysis to find out the relationship between the excavation and the production site of 25 bronze weapons from prehistoric ages. All 25 bronze weapons are ternary alloys of copper-tin-lead and lead is artificially added. The lead isotope ratios of 25 bronze weapons show that bronze are made by raw materials in the southern regions of the Korean Peninsula, including northern China. The raw materials of narrow-shaped bronze dagger are supplied in zone 1-3 and northern China. In addition, provenance of lead for bronze halberd and pearhead are the rest of the region except for zone 1 and zone 4. Silver are enriched in most samples and zinc and cobalt are deficient. Arsenic and antimony detected only specific samples and can be used as critical parameter for provenance study. Lead isotopes and trace elements of archaeological bronzes will provide conservation scientist with useful tool to study the provenance of raw materials

• KOMUNHWA
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• no.68
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• pp.7-24
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• 2006

This article is the critical review of the methods and assumptions with which the Korean archaeologists have tried to approach to the Bronze age society. It was not until the 1980s' that there had been any attempt to define the relevant units for the study of past societies. Before the archaeological records of megalithic builders in the Bronze age began to be analyzed to find out the general traits of chiefdom society, Korean archaeologists had described the variations in the cultural, rather than the social, entities. From the 1990s' , some scholars have attempted to reconstruct the scale and organization of the social groups and explain the growth of polities in evolutionary view, analyzing the hierarchical distributions of settlement data. In the concluding remarks of the review, I would like to indicate the some problems in the conceptualization of the material culture patterning in the regional and/or inter-regional level. First, the conceptual problem which appeared when the Bronze archaeologists define the distribution of artifact assemblages, composed of the specific artifact traits , beyond the instrumental categories that are efficient for the establishments of regional chronologies. It is evidently erroneous conceptualization that we define the artifact assemblages as the socio-cultual entities which came into being in specific time and place, geographically expanded, and finally disappeared based on the view of essentialism. Second, the interpretative problems about wide distributions of certain bronze artifacts must be indicated. I would like to suggest that the wide distributions of the specific bronze dagger or mirror types should be explained not by the cultural area concept related to the ethnicity assumptions, but by the world system or the inter-regional interaction models.

• KOMUNHWA
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• no.70
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• pp.35-62
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• 2007

Songguk-ri site gained academic recognition by the excavation of stone coffin tomb with a bronze dagger in 1974. And it is confirmed that this site is epoch-making in Korean bronze age through the following excavation started in 1975. But the excavation reports published until now do not have even overall view of this site, thus it is difficult to get the whole picture of this site. Thus, in this paper the author reexamined all reports on this site and by making the map of overall view and distribution of archaeological features as a basic research. Moreover, I analyzed also artifacts from this site, and compared with the recent papers written by other researchers about the chronology and character. Songguk-ri site has livelihood domain which consists of dwelling pits, attached features, storage pits, pot-firing features, wood fence, abatises, buildings above ground, as well as cemetery which consists of stone-coffins, jar-coffins, pit tombs. Trace of making large terrace was also excavated. These features seem to belong to the same archaeological stage, dated about B.C.850-550, according to C14 dating. On the other hand, the intensification of wet-rice cultivation made this group more productive. Based on this financial strength, some influential group emerged they constructed defensive settlement to protect their products safely. Besides it seems that there were frequent occurrence of conflicts. However, we can know that they kept their stable life, through the expansion of living space. Consequently, Songguk-ri site played a role of the summit among some settlement in this area.