A Study of the Bone Arrowheads from Korean Peninsula and Northeast China

Abstract

This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of bone arrowheads discovered in prehistoric and early historic sites in Korean Peninsula and Northeast China. It tries to reanalyze the function of arrowheads that had been thought to be simple replacement of iron arrowheads and to find out the background of their use, the reason for its popularity, and the background of the extinction of bone arrowheads. This paper also compares bone arrowheads of Korean peninsula with those of Northeast China and discusses their similarities and differences. First of all, their nominal and numeric attributes are analyzed in order to understand their formal characteristics of bone arrowheads from Korea and Northeast China. Bone arrowheads of Korea can be divided by the presence or absence of the tang and can be divided into steptanged/non-step-tanged subtypes. Next, the relationship between the cross section of the bone arrowheads and the raw material was reviewed, and whether the cross section of the bone arrowheads reflects temporality was discussed. The width of most of the bone arrowheads discovered in Korea is below 1.1cm and is narrower than their contemporary stone and iron arrowheads. This difference may be related to their function. Bone arrowheads of Northeast China can be divided by the presence/absence of the tang and can be divided by the shape of their tips. The flat-tip-tanged arrowheads are most numerous subtype and may be related to the local environment of Northeast China where bamboo shaft was difficult to acquire. The width of most of the bone arrowhead discovered in Northeast China is below 1.1cm as in Korea and is narrower than their contemporary stone and iron arrowheads. Compared to the wide stone and iron arrowheads, the bone arrowheads is suitable for strike vital parts of the game such as heart or lung. The number of arrowheads with triangular cross section increased over time and the total length of bone arrowheads increases over time. This seems to contain an intention to increase penetrative power. The prevalence of the use of bone arrowheads after stone arrowheads is related to the spread of metal tools. It is concluded that bone arrowheads were not replacement of metal ones but improvement over earlier stone arrowheads as major types of arrowheads due to their better efficiency. Finally, by comparing the bone arrowheads of Korea and Northeast China, it is also suggested that environmental factors influenced mostly on the shape of bone arrowheads and cultural factors rather influenced on their prevalent time.