Liaoning bronze dagger culture

The early phase consists of an early period of bronze manufacture without daggers originated from the spreading processes of Siberian Seima-Turbino Type bronzeware throughout Eurasia continent, followed by a period of producing what is now called lute- or violin-shaped daggers by Korean scholars (Bipahyungdonggeom, 비파형동검).

The earliest artifacts from this period are found exclusively in Liaoning of northeast China and seem only gradually to have spread to the Korean peninsula.

[5][6] By Lee's (1996) Phase II, however, a distinctive notched form of dagger begins to emerge in southern Korea, suggesting that by this time independent bronze production had begun in that region.

Some argue it to be a regional variation of a much larger distribution of similar daggers that range from Hebei and Inner Mongolia in the west to the Korean peninsula in the east.

Lee (1996) divides this phase into two distinct sections: one dating to the 3rd century BCE in which the production of slender bronze daggers predominated, and one dating to the 2nd century BCE in which daggers are often accompanied by bronze mirrors with geometric designs and halberds influenced by the Chinese Qin state.

The Korean bronze dagger culture of the Later Phase appears to correspond with the state of Jin, which occasionally enters Chinese annals as a contemporary of Wiman Joseon.