The Best Example of Stone-Craft, Polished Stone Daggers

[Narration]
These shiny, white, stone daggers are from the Bronze Age. It is difficult to believe that Bronze Age people produced such delicate and elaborate artwork.

[Tourist]
Wow, they’re fabulous! They also exude a sense of mystery. I’d like to have one in my living room.

[Narration]
How did you know that they were decorative daggers?

[Tourist]
Do you mean that Bronze Age people were interested in interior decoration? That’s unbelievable!

[Narration]
Ah, I mean that the daggers were designed to decorate tombs, not houses. Just like the pottery we saw earlier, these daggers were funerary goods used to signify the power of the deceased.

[Tourist]
Aha, I see. They remind me of the medieval European nobility who used to decorate their houses with swords and armor. But you said that these were from the Bronze Age. Why didn’t they make them with bronze? Bronze daggers would surely have been more prestigious.

[Narration]
That’s a good question. This style of stone dagger was only produced in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. Since bronze manufacturing technology first developed in the northern part of the peninsula, it took a long time for the technique to spread south. Daggers were made of stone until they were superseded by the more popular bronze. Thus this polished stone dagger is regarded as a unique artifact that is only found in the south of the Korean Peninsula.