Also, unlike earthwares and stone tools, few dotaku were excavated from dwelling sites and, unlike other copper items such as doken (bronze swords) and dohoko (bronze pikes), no dotaku used as burial goods in tombs were discovered (One example exists of excavation at a groove surrounding the grave mound in the Yayoi period.), which indicates that dotaku were not private belongings but property of village communities.
土器や石器と違い、住居跡からの出土はほとんど無く、また銅剣や銅矛など他の銅製品と異なり、墓からの副葬品としての出土例は一度もないため（弥生時代の墓制墳丘墓の周濠部からの出土は一例ある）、個人の持ち物ではなく、村落共同体全体の所有物であったとされている。