ABSTRACT
The economy of Gyeongju is thought to have been largely based on agriculture, but many products were needed locally for daily life as well as trade. No ancient area for making household pottery or firing it has yet been located in Gyeongju, but it seems likely that some pottery must have been molded and fired nearby. Silla pottery is thought to be the prototype of the Sue ware in Japan. When bronze appeared in southern Korea about 300 bce, almost a millennium after it flourished in China, it was used for weapons, especially daggers and halberds, but also for non-utilitarian objects, such as mirrors. Many iron weapons but relatively few iron tools were found in Gyeongju graves. Silla was known as the country of gold. Gyeongju's reputation as a place abounding in gold lasted even beyond its time as capital of Unified Silla when it dominated the Korean peninsula.
