| Prehistoric cultures of Vietnam
|
|---|
| Paleolithic Age |
| Sơn Vi Culture (20,000-12,000 BC) |
| Mesolithic Age |
| Hòa Bình Culture (12,000-10,000 BC) |
| Neolithic Age |
| Bắc Sơn Culture (10,000-8,000 BC) |
| Quỳnh Văn Culture (8,000-6,000 BC) |
| Đa Bút Culture (6,000-5,000 BC) |
| Bronze Age |
| Phùng Nguyên Culture (5,000-4,000 BC) |
| Đồng Đậu Culture (4,000-2,500 BC) |
| Gò Mun Culture (2,500-2,000 BC) |
| Iron Age |
| Đông Sơn Culture (2,000 BC-200 AD) |
| Sa Huỳnh Culture (1,000 BC-200 AD) |
| Óc Eo Culture (1-630 AD) |
The Đông Sơn culture was a prehistoric Bronze Age culture that was centered at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. Its influence flourished to other parts of Southeast Asia, including the Indo-Malayan Archipelago from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.[1]
The Dong Son people were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping buffaloes and pigs, fishing and sailing with long dug-out canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, as can be seen in the famous Dong Son drums, which have been found widely in Southeast Asia and southern China.
The Dong Son culture is linked to the Tibeto-Burman culture, the Dai culture in Yunnan and Laos, the Mon-Khmer cultures and the culture associated with the Plain of Jars in Laos. Similar artifacts have been found in Cambodia along the Mekong River dating back to the 4th millennium B.C. Dong Son influence is seen throughout South-East Asia, from the moko drum of Alor, Indonesia (suspected of originating with Dong Son bronze drums) to the design of keris knife.
To the south of the Dong Son culture was the proto-Cham Sa Huynh culture.
Contents |
The theory based on the assumption that bronze casting in eastern Asia originated in northern China; however, this idea has been discredited by archaeological discoveries in north-eastern Thailand in the 1970's. In the words of one scholar, "bronze casting began in Southeast Asia and was later borrowed by the Chinese, not vice versa as the Chinese scholars have always claimed".
Such interpretation is supported by the work of modern Vietnamese archaeologists. They have found that the earliest bronze drums of Dong Son are closely related in basic structural features and in decorative design to the pottery of the Phung Nguyen culture. It is still uncertain whether the bronze drums were made for religious ceremonies, to rally men for war, or for another secular role. The various discerning images and arrow points engraved on the drums has raised speculation that the drums may have been used as a local seasonal calendar.[1] Furthermore, the recurring images of a figure holding a scroll of paper and the finding of these dated papers at various sites may point to the Dong Son as the first peoples who began the paper making process.[2] [3]
The bronze drums were made in significant proportions in Vietnam and parts of Southern China and were then traded to the south and west to places such as Java and the Bali islands. Thus it became valued by people with very different cultures. The Dong Son bronze drums exhibit the advanced techniques and the great skill in the lost-wax casting of large objects, the Co Loa drum would have required the smelting of between 1 and 7 tons of copper ore and the use of up to 10 large castings crucibles at one time. Most scholars agree the Dong Son drums display an artistic level reaching perfection that few cultures of the time could rival.
The discovery in the late XVII century of large, elaborately incised drums in mainland and island Southeast Asia first alerted Western scholars to the existence in the region of distinctive early bronze-working cultures. Ranging in height from a few inches to over six feet, up to four feet in diameter, and often of considerable weight, such drums are the most widely dispersed products of the Dong Son culture. Examples produced in Vietnam, in addition to works made locally, have been found in South China, throughout mainland Southeast Asia, and in Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Irian Jaya. The function of these drums, often found in burials, remains unclear: they may have been used in warfare or as part of funerary or other ceremonial rites. Models of the drums, produced in bronze or clay, were made to be included in burials. This small bronze example has the rounded top, curved middle, and splayed base often found in drums from Vietnam. The central loop and the four small frogs on the tympanum are characteristic features of examples produced from the III century B.C. to the I century A.D. The starburst pattern in the center of the tympanum, a standard motif on Dong Son drums, is surrounded by a row of linked concentric circles and crosshatching. These designs are repeated around the side of the top section and just above the base. On the center of the drum, four stylized scenes showing warriors. Many bronze drums of the Dong Son period have been reported in South and Southwest China, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. In Vietnam, approximately 140 drums were discovered in many locations throughout Vietnam from the high land region of the north to the plains of the south and as far as to the Phu Quoc island, in the Gulf of Thailand.
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dong Son culture |
|
||||||||
