3400 BC to 19 BC

Dolmens and the Samhan

Neolithic villagers on the peninsula make pottery decorated with comb patterns. From about 1500 BC rice farming spreads, and Bronze Age chiefs are buried under stone dolmens, such as those of Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa. In the last centuries BC the south is home to a state Chinese writers call Jin, and then to three groups of small chiefdoms, the Samhan.