Chinese Mirrors with Inscriptions from Early Iron Age Burial Complexes in Korea and Japan

Abstract

This article presents findings of the comprehensive study of Chinese mirrors with inscriptions unearthed from the early Iron Age burial complexes of Korea and Japan and the search for their closest analogies. An analysis of the morphological features of these objects and the content of the inscriptions allows us to attribute them to four main types: mirrors with inscriptions containing the characters jia chang fu gui, riguang, zhaoming and qingbai. Similar mirrors were widespread in Han China from the middle of the 2nd century BC to the end of the 1st century AD. They also became widespread throughout Eurasia, including the territory from Ukraine in the west to Japan in the east, from Western Siberia in the north to Central Vietnam in the south. The identity of the ornamentation and inscriptions of mirrors from different regions suggests that they all were produced in a limited number of centres located within the borders of Han China and spread across the territory of Eurasia along the routes of the Great Silk Road, which ran mainly along the steppe belt to the west and along sea routes to the east and southeast of the continent and to nearby islands. On the territory of Korea and Japan these mirrors might serve as amulets and markers of high social status, the inscriptions themselves, most likely, were not clear to the majority of the ancient inhabitants of this territory, since hieroglyphic writing became widespread in Korea and Japan only in the 6th – 7th centuries.