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Architectural material system at Lam Kinh site (Thanh Hoa)

Since 1996, the Museum of Vietnam History and the Management Bureau of Lam Kinh site area have taken a lot of explorations, excavations in the area, discovering a lot of the important sites and artifacts, in which architectural materials from the monuments at Lam Kinh are remarkable. The system of architectural materials at Lam Kinh includes two types, mainly terra cotta and stones, besides there are finds of bamboo stakes, wooden planks and many iron nails for linking the monuments. The article presents the architectural materials at Lam Kinh with the two main kinds of terra cotta and stones in each period: Tran Dynasty (13th -14th centuries), Early Le period (15th-16th centuries) and Le Trung Hung (17th-18th centuries). The study results of the architectural material system partially show the initial architectural physiognomy and the appearance of a lot of new large-scale monuments, supplement to the plan of architectural composition of the central area in particular and the extension of the whole plan of Lam Kinh site area in general in each period. Therefore, this also makes it possible for us to realize the up and down process of Lam Kinh through every period.

Kiln area of Tam Tho (Thanh Hoa)

Tam Tho kiln area is the greatest one in Vietnam in the 10 centuries AD. There are at least 5 production sites there. Each site includes a lot of kilns with various kiln layers overlapping each other. Since 1937, the archaeologists have found out 16 kilns. However, there are much more kilns here in fact. The kilns with early layers used to of small scale and don't concentrate in successive groups with the artifacts from East Han (kilns 1b, 2a, 1c and 4a). The kilns with late layers used to of large scale, concentrating in successive groups with 3 kilns or more with artifacts from the beginning of the Six Dynasties. It is very likely that some groups of potters speciallising in ceramic production were formed in Tam Tho kiln area. Tam Tho kiln area has the earliest date in the period of 10 centuries AD and lies in one of the 3 largest centres of the Dong Son culture so that its products clearly have art style of Dong Son culture. The owners of Tam Tho kiln area might be Han (Chinese) or Vietnamese. Their roles are obviously shown on the products from this area. The ceramics from there were provided for the Jiu Zhen market (Han–Six Dynasties period) and for the further markets such as Champa Kingdom. Tam Tho kiln area has left a lot of experiences for the kiln production in the 10 centuries AD in Vietnam and for Thanh Hoa later.

Lam Dong archaeology: Some key matters

Before 1975, Lam Dong archaeology was a blank area in the archaeological map. Recently, archaeology found some sites with artifacts identifying a development cultural stage from prehistory to history on this Tay Nguyen Land. As for Paleolithic, 160 samples were found from Nui Voi (Duc Trong), including 10 basalt tools with 1 or 2 roughly-chopped faces. Apart from that some chopped tools were found from Doi Giang (Bao Loc), Ta Lieng (Lam Ha) and Lac Xuan (Don Duong). All of these finds have characteristics of Paleolithic tools. As for Neolithic: 60 samples were found, including 1 quadraliteral adze from Tai Phuc (Lam Ha); 3 sloppingly-shouldered hoes from Nam Ninh (Cat Tien); 1 hoe, 6 axes and a round stone from Tan Lac; 6 basalt quadralliteral hoes and 2 horizontally- shouldered hoes from the foot of Da mountain at Di Linh. At Minh Loan commune (Duc Trong) 1 silex quadralliteral axe was also found. The Metal Age in Lam Dong has been identified through Phu My site and some other sites and artifacts. Within excavated 87m2 revealed that the Phu My cultural layer is 25m thick on average, including 12 stone artifacts and 116 terra-cotta items of various kinds, with the dates equivalent to Cai Lang and Cai Van sites, about 3,000BP. Apart from that, 2 sets of lithic musical stones were found in Lam Dong, whose identified date is about 3,000BP. As for historical archaeology, there are a lot of large excavations at such architectural sites as Holy-land Cat Tien, Pro'h site area (Don Duong) or burial sites such as Dai Lao, Dai Lang and Da Don, collecting numerous artifacts for the study of Lam Dong historical stage from the 4th century to the end of 19th century.

Mac Bac location and its relationship through ceramic data

Man Bac site is located at 20°08'085" North latitude, 105°59'025" East longitude at Bach Lien hamlet, Yen Thanh commune, Yen Mo district, Ninh Thuan province. It was found in 1998. The Institute of Archaeology took the first excavation at Man Bac site in 1999 and the second in 2001. Man Bac site includes 3 cultural layers, representing for the two early and late periods of cultural development with fairly clear occurrences. The early cultural layer is equivalent to the early stage of the Phung Nguyen culture. The late is equivalent to the classic stage of that culture (the developing stage). The Man Bac site converges a lot of factors of various cultures from the Late Neolithic to Early Metal Age in the Northeast coast, Red river delta and plain and Ma river coastal plain. This is shown through the assemblage of stone tools and ceramics. However, Man Bac site also has its own characteristics, including typical ceramics type I, with the vesselmouth shape and decorative motifs ranging from simple to complicated ones. These mouth type and designs are inherited from the Da But culture (Late period), i.e. paddled designs decorated from the rim to the foot of the vessel, together with other complicated decorative designs. Through the long-term settlement, the Man Bac inhabitants were subject to the environmental effects and adaptation, with the rich living style and unceasingly development of tool-making techniques. It is possible to say that Man Bac embodies an "active" development way in Late Neolithic-Early Metal Age in Vietnam.

My Khanh stupa (Thua Thien-Hue)

My Khanh stupa was found in 2001 in the coastal sand of My Khanh hamlet, Phu Dien commune, Phu Vang district (Thua Thien - Hue). When discovered, the stupa was about 3m-5m deep in the sand, in fairly intact state. It was built with bricks on the foundation of light yellow clay pressed solid. The height is 2, 75m-2, 90m, which is divided into 4 parts: base, foot, body and roof ridge. Its main door opens to the east and the other 3 faked doors open to the rest directions. The base is terraced; the body is built with protruded or set-back blocks, creating various architectural patches, the roof ridge has various protruded levels symmetric with the foot. In the stupa centre is a brick altar, on which there are grey stone ling a and yoni. Inside the northwest stupa, there is a small brick pedestal with the carved yoni-shape on the surface. Beside the main stupa, there is a square cubic brick altar in the east with the height of 1.4m. Setting My Khanh stupa in the system of Champa stupas, it is possible to see that this stupa marks a changing step from architecture with My Son E1 style to Hoa Lai style, with the date of approximate 8th century. This date is equivalent to the absolute date identified by charcoat sample taken from the floor outside the stupa foot, resulting in 750+40BP.

Some features about Bac Can prehistory

Bac Can is a mountainous province located in the Northeast Vietnam. So far, in comparison to the adjacient provinces such as Lang Son, Cao Bang, Tuyen Quang, ... Bac Can has a few archaeological discoveries. Recently, the archaeologists have found out some important prehistorical sites in Bac Can. At Na Cooc, Tham Mieu Caves, there have been finds of cultural remains in the Late Pleistocence sediment. These are Late Paleolithic sites. In Bac Can, we have just found a typical Hoa Binh cultural site, marking a development step of Early Neolithic culture in Viet Bac area. It is Tien Cave in Ba Be National Garden. The exploratory results at Tien Cave show a rather thick cultural layer, having common characteristics of sediment formed in Early Holocene period. The cultural layer includes Hoa Binh cultural tools and traces of primitive fire place with food remains. The researchers suppose that Tien Cave is a prehistorical settlement site belonging to the Hoa Binh culture with the date of approximate lO,OOOBP. At Na Ca, Na Tern and Khau Lua, though no traces of prehistorical cultural terrain have been found, the existence of shouldered adzes shows that this area is a settlement as well as a place for searching for food of the ancient inhabitants. The manufactured features and forms of the artifacts show that they are products of Late Neolithic-Early Metal Age inhabitnats with the dates between 4,OOOBP-3,OOOBP. It is likely that the owners of this site group belong to the Ha Giang cultural system. At Doi Due Xuan site (Bac Can town) found big stone shovels. The existence of this type in Bac Can results from the interaction between the ancient inhabitants here and their counterparts in south China. It is especially remarkable that most of the big shovels found in North Vietnam seem to coincide with the early settlement areas of the ancient Tay ethnic community. Possibly, this is a cultural characteristic that needs studying when the ancient culture is studied in this area.