The Antenna Daggers of Puyŏ in Northeast Asia

Free and open to the public. Please RSVP here.

A talk by Mark Byington, Professor & Project Director, Early Korea Project, Harvard University

The so-called bronze antenna daggers that appeared and developed in northeast Asia from the third century BCE to the second century CE were initially a product of the Puyŏ kingdom in central Manchuria. They have been discovered in a variety of types and forms spread from Jilin Province and the Russian Maritime Region in the north, through the Korean peninsula, and southward to Tsushima and Kyushu in Japan. As a unique artifact type, it provides an interesting diagnostic index for tracing its spread and development through time and geographic space. This presentation introduces the antenna dagger, outlines a useful typology based on production and morphology, and analyzes their apparent function and how they were disseminated southward, revealing evidence of trade routes and nodes of exchange suggestive of diplomatic and trade networks or the migration of populations. The results of this analysis suggest deeper ways of understanding political and cultural developments in northeast Asia during the late prehistory and early protohistory of that region.