CultureFrom c. 2000–1500 BCE

Bronze Age (Korean Peninsula)

Bronze came into use around 2000–1500 BCE. Rice farming began, private property and classes emerged, and chieftains came to rule.

Bronze served the elite as weapons and ritual objects, such as mandolin-shaped daggers and coarse-patterned mirrors, while farm tools were still of stone, notably semilunar stone knives for reaping and grooved adzes. Pottery was plain (Misong-ri and top-shaped types, among others). Rice farming began in some wetlands alongside millet, barley and beans.

With surplus harvests came private property, inequality and classes. The elite were buried under dolmens (table and go-board types) and in stone-cist tombs; the dolmen sites of Ganghwa, Gochang and Hwasun are World Heritage. Villages sat on hills and were defended, as at Songguk-ri in Buyeo, by ditches and palisades; houses became mostly rectangular and gradually rose above ground. Chieftains claiming descent from heaven appeared, and among them Gojoseon was founded.

The Bangudae petroglyphs in Ulju show whales, deer, tigers and whale hunting. Most scholars date them to the Bronze Age, though some place them in the late Neolithic. The concentric circles at Janggi-ri in Goryeong are read as sun worship.

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The map in 2000 BC

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Places: Songguk-ri Site, Buyeo, Bugeun-ri Dolmen, Ganghwa

Before and after

Earlier: 2333 BC Founding of Gojoseon
Later: 1000 BC Bronze Age Culture of Gojoseon

Themes that include this event

Early Civilizations and Empires3500 BC – 486 BC
From the first civilizations in the great river valleys to the first empires of the Near East, India and China — comparing their writing, law, religion and rule
Changes in Tombs2000 BC – 1374
From dolmens to the tomb of King Gongmin — stone-mound, stone-mound wooden-chamber, stone-chamber and brick tombs, and how burial changed by kingdom and age
Changes in Korean Ceramics8000 BC – 1900
From comb-pattern pottery to blue-and-white porcelain — earthenware, Goryeo plain and inlaid celadon, buncheong, white porcelain and blue-and-white
Intangible and World Heritage2000 BC – 1850
From the dolmens to Namhansanseong on the World Heritage List, from Jongmyo ritual music to ssireum on the Intangible Heritage lists — where each came from and when it was inscribed
Buyeo2000 BC – 1376
From the Songguk-ri village to Sabi, Baekje’s last capital — the Geum River town where Baekje culture bloomed and fell