韓國磨製石劍起源에 關한 一考察

A Study on the Origin of Stone Daggers of Korea

" Stone daggers made of slate, rarely of sandstone, are the most typical artefact of Korean bronze and early iron ages(ca. 7th-1st centuries B.C.). Of the stone daggers, there are two basic types; daggers with hilt (Type A) and those without hilt (Type B). Type B has a small knob-like protrusion instead of a hilt, and two lateral groove flank the central ridge. Thus in the case of Type B, a separate hilt probably made of wood must have been used. The hilted Type A has a guard between the hilt and blade, and the blade has the cross-section of a flattened lozenge because of the raised central ridge. Type A daggers are distributed all over the Korean peninsula except the northernmost area along the Yalu and Tumen rivers. They also entered Japan and are discovered from Yayoi sites in western Japan. A small number of them (Type A) were also reported from sites of the Shellmound Ⅱ culture of the Soviet Maritime region adjoining the northeastern Korea. But the distribution of the Type B is limited to northwestern Korea around Pyongyang. Strangely, the same type is to be found only in the Osaka Nara area of central Japan in contrast to western Japan where only the Type A is distributed. According to Professor Arimitsu of Japan, who in 1959 summarized the prevailing views among Japanese archaeologists on the Korean stone daggers, the Type B is the earliest type because the stone daggers as a whole are the stone version of the so-called Sehyong Tongkom(Slim Bronze Dagger; Hosogata Doken in Japanese) which should be correctly called the Korean-type bronze dagger, and Type B is the faithful copy of the bronze prototype. According to Arimitsu, the hilted Type A is a later development evolved from Type B. The Korean bronze dagger emerged in the northwestern Korea around the third century B.C. Thus, according to Arimitsu, all Korean stone daggers are later than the th ird century B. C. and they were made by native Koreans purely for the use as burial gifts in dolmens while the bronze daggers were owned and produced by Manchurian immigrants who were the ruling class above the almost stone age-level native population. And, according to Sueji Umehara, the so-called Manchurian bronze dagger is a later variety evolved out of, or degenerated type from the slim Korean type. He even claimed that the slim Korean daggers are foreign products of unknown provenance outside Korea and the Manchurian type which are also occasionally found in Korea is actually Korean copies of the imported foreign prototype. In 1962, however, I proposed that the slim Korean type was, in contrary, evolved out of the Manchurian type as attest by a discovery of archaic Manchurian daggers at Shih-erh-tai-ying-tzu, Liaoning, and my view has since been accepted by both Korean and Japanese archaeologists. Thus, Japanese archaeologist like Mr. Mori pushed back the date of the emergence of Korean stone dagger to at least before 300 B. C. The Manchurian dagger or Liaoning type dagger is a product of a mixed Siberian and Chinese bronze culture formulated around 500 B.C. by the so-called Tung-i (Eastern Barbarian) people, a Tungusic stock to which the ancient Koreans belonged ethnically. My point of view, here, is that there is no evidence that the Type B (without hilt) stone dagger is earlier than the Type A (with hilt) both in time and type. There are evidences that Type A stone dagger was actually used as a practical tool from the early stale of the bronze age i.e. around 600 B.C., and Type. A is indeed the most natural and reasonable shape or form when one makes a stone dagger. Thus, the immediate proto-type for Type A dagger should be sought not in bronze daggers without hilt but in those single-cast daggers with hilt. The Manchurian-type bronze daggers had separtely-made hilt mostly made of material now perished completely. They had, however, very occasionally hilt made of bronze which was fastened to the blade by means of thread.