The Production and Meaning of Bronze Mirrors with Radiation and Linked-arc Design

Bronze mirrors with radiation and linked-arc designs (放射線連弧文鏡), excavated in the Yeongnam region during the Proto-Three Kingdoms period, have been identified as imitation bronze mirrors produced under the influence of Chinese mirrors (漢鏡), as in the case of small-scale imitation bronze mirrors (小型仿製銅鏡). However, they differ from the small-scale imitation bronze mirrors in terms of shape-related elements such as size and pattern, and have instead been confirmed to be more closely connected to Chinese mirrors. Their presence therefore reveals that differences existed among imitation bronze mirrors, depending on the background or purpose of production. Based on this awareness of the problem, this paper attempts to comprehensively examine the genealogy of bronze mirrors with radiation and linked-arc designs identified thus far, as well as their production sites, production background, and significance. For this purpose, the mirrors are analyzed in terms of their morphology and production technology. Similarities and differences, both among bronze mirrors with radiation and linked-arc designs and between them and other types, were identified by comparing these mirrors with small-scale imitation bronze mirrors of the same assemblage, Chinese mirrors, and other contemporaneous mirrors discovered in the Yeongnam region. As a result, a number of technical manufacturing elements common to Chinese mirrors were also observed in bronze mirrors with radiation and linked-arc designs. In some cases, shared elements with small-scale imitation bronze mirrors were also noted. This may reflect the different temporal contexts of the mirrors under study, but it may also indicate that the characteristics and perceptions of the objects influenced their appearance, in relation to social changes that took place in the Yeongnam region during the Proto-Three Kingdoms period. Accordingly, attempts were also made to establish the relationship between examples from the Yeongnam region and the Japanese Archipelago, based on the background or purpose of production, technical forms, and genealogy of production.