"Culture of the River Taedong", One of World’s Five Cultures

The "Culture of the River Taedong" has been widely known as one of the world’s five cultures, along with the Mesopotamia Culture, the Indus Culture, the Hwang Ho Culture and the Nile Culture. It is an ancient culture that originated in the Taedong River basin centered on Pyongyang.

The Taedong River basin is composed of clear rivers and vast and fertile plain, and it has been one of the cradles of mankind and human civilization as it is an area good for people to live in from olden times for its rich products and warm temperatures.

It was the center of ancient culture, as evidenced by the fact that dolmens, representing the culture of the period of the first Korean state founded by King Tangun, are distributed in the river basin in the greatest number.

And the remains of large villages, reminiscent of the city, were discovered a lot in the basin of the Taedong River. This can be found only in the center of ancient civilization.

Besides, the fact that the pipha (a kind of oriental lute)-shaped daggers and its spearhead were among the remains, proves that the Taedong River basin was one of the sources and central place of bronze culture, the first of its kind in the world, as well as one of the cradles of the ancient civilization.

And there were evidences showing that the five grains farming including rice, millet and beans pervaded the basin in the earliest period worldwide with three molt silkworm culture different from those of the neighboring countries, which proves that agriculture had developed very much at that time.

The fact that there were asterism-engraved dolmens in the Taedong River basin, too, shows that the Culture of the River Taedong is one of ancient civilizations.

In particular, hundreds of dolmens with asterism carved on their lids were unearthed and proved in the Taedong River basin. This is far ahead of Mesopotamia in southwest Asia, the birthplace of ancient astronomy.

The bronze two-man acrobatic ornaments and bells from the tombs in the basin show that music, dance and acrobatics had been developed on a considerable level at that time. And among the remains were Sinji characters, the ancient letters, which shows the high level of development of our ancient culture.

As seen above, the Taedong River basin is one of the cradles where world civilization started as it is a region with many historical relics and relics to be proud of before the world.

Rodong Sinmun