The Bronze Age is not concluded as the stratified society, but is not called as a equal society. Because it can assumpt that the society was consisted with equal classes at the beginning of the Bronze Age, but it was gradually turned into stratified s...
The Bronze Age is not concluded as the stratified society, but is not called as a equal society. Because it can assumpt that the society was consisted with equal classes at the beginning of the Bronze Age, but it was gradually turned into stratified society. So it is not important if the Bronze Age was equal society or stratified one, but the transition must be dealt importantly. From such viewpoint, the study investigated the transition of settlements centering the ruins of Bronze Age around the Jincheon-cheon(stream) in Daegu, a relatively narrow geographical-range area corresponding to the village.
Based on the identified dwelling types and its artifacts found near the Jincheon-cheon, this study divided 7groups, their tomb types and their artifacts found into 3groups. After setting the parallel relationship of dwelling and tombs, the study investigated the transition of village and tombs together and examined the changes in spatial utilization and its meaning of settlements' transition. Given that setting the relationship of dwelling and tombs is not easy, many have considered this trail as negative one. But it is not impossible absolutely to grasp the relationship of settlement unit and tomb group unit and its meaning if the research range is limited to the 'village', relatively narrow, geographical range. The study divided the transition phase of Jincheon-cheon locality into 3 phases. In the phase of I, the villages were distributed by section, and there was no tomb with visual structure which we can easily recognize. In the II phase, the dwelling's integration state was identified and its concentration level of dwelling by section was higher. In this phase, main type of tombs were individual tomb type. But in later period, as the tombs located closely or connected to the individual ones or connected were appeared, small units of burial clusters were formed. Like that, the characteristics of II phase can be expressed as making units of tombs & dwelling. At considering that the joint-residence type dwelling and the small units of burial blusters reflect the kinship, it is thought that a household community might be the basic unit consisting the society at that time. Considering the relationship of dwelling type and small unit of burial cluster, it is understood that the concept of household community had both the social feature of repeating ritual via a member's burial event and the economic aspect of production and consumption.
In the phase of III, it is observed that making unit was collapsed and dwelling & tombs were concentrated on some certain areas. This means that the functional division in terms of village space happened. As the residence type was changed from the joint-residence to the independent residental, the dwellings were distributed with certain distance from each other. It is thought that these features were relevant the appearance of independent tomb type which tombs were arranged independently around centering the large-unit tomb clusters. The appearance of dwelling type with independent household and the distributed arrangement of tombs, not previous unit combining the dwelling and tombs can mean that household community's bond became weaker than previous. In other words, in the early period(the phase of II) when authentic fixed village began to be formed, several groups came to live in some limited space. As the result of that, the role of household community producing and consuming jointly was emphasized. Then some competition was created among groups. But as certain amount of time passed, the wariness against other groups might get weaker and the necessity of competition among groups might also be reduced.
Reaching at the phase of III, the labor size given to individual tomb was reduced compared that in the phase of II, and some common ritual facilities like the menhir in Jincheon-dong was appeared in a village. These can be related to above changes. Given the fact that large farmland appeared in the latter period of Bronze Age(the phase of III) in the southern part of Korean Peninsula, residents at that time might think that it was unnecessary to mobilize the labor in making tombs because the labor had to be used in producing crops. So with the background of residents' conscious changes, the size of tomb was smaller but artifacts was nearly buried in a tomb. Whereas, as the appearance of large farmlands increased the frequencies of cooperative working, it is possible that the menhir in Jincheon-dong might be built as a common ritual facility.
In conclusion, the transition of villages around the Jincehon-cheon(stream) in the Bronze Age is considered as the process intensifying the division phenomenon of functional spaces into the ritual section, the tomb section, the dwelling section and the production section. It is thought that the spatial division phenomenon reflected the change process of society type from the household-community unit to the village-centering society.