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Dark-land holes at Go Hoi site (Vinh Phuc province)

The Go Hoi site belongs to Hai Luu commune, Lap Thach district, Vinh Phuc province. The site was found in 2000 and was excavated twice in 2002 and 2003 with the total area of 267m2 by the Section of archaeology - the Department of History (The University of Social Sciences and Humanitiy). Apart from the rich and diversified assemblage of stone artifacts and ceramics, at the Go Hoi site found 37 dark-land holes with various shapes and sizes and the depth is from 30cm to 250cm, which is distributed at random. The stone and ceramics artifacts are restorable and the broken fragments mainly concentrate in the dark-land holes; just a few of the stone and ceramics artifacts are distributed sparsely in a thin cultural layer.

The ewers decorated with buffalo-head figures

The author introduces 2 bronze ewers and one pottery ewer decorated with buffalo-head figures originated from Ha Tay and Quang Ninh. From the comparision between the shapes, decorative designs on the body and cover, expecially the buffalo-head figures decorated 'on the 2 handles or feet of the ewers and the artifacts of the same type found from the tomb of the NanYue King excavated in 1983 at the Tuong Cuong Shan in the centre of Guangzhou (Guangdong; China), the author states that: - The bronze and pottery ewers decorated with buffalo-head figures found from Ha Tay and Quang Ninh (Vietnam) have the same style and at the same with rpost of the ceramics found from the tomb of the NanYue King aroud the mid-second century BC; -Together with those bronze barrel; - Shaped jars, the ewers decorated with buffalo-head figures from the tomb of the Nan Yue King come from Vietnam: The Dong Son culture.

The first excavation at Giong Noi site (Ben Tre), in 2004

The Giong Noi site of Binh Thanh village, Binh Phu commune, Ben Tre town (Ben Tre province) was found and test-excavated in 2003. In 2004, the Institute of Archaeology in collocation with the provincial museum of Ben Tre conducted the first excavtion with the area of 70m2. The excavation results show that Giong Noi is a settlement site with one stable cultural layer and the average thickness of 32cm. The artifacts found from thebcultural layer include stone artifacts, ceramics and bone items, The stone artifacts are mainly labour tools such as axes, chisels, grinders, beaters... and axes. The ceramics are great in quantity, with diversified types, a lot of small-sized ceramics with rich decoratives with various types of design combination which creat fine, lively and unique motives. The bone items are also fairly rich, with the existence and good condition of pig jaw-bone, tortoise and a lot of animal bones and sprawn and crabs. Apart from the special and unique characteristics, the types of artifacts from Giong Noi are similar and close to those sychronic sites in the Southeast area, Ho Chi Minh city and the plains of Cuu Long river to form a system of the sites belonging to the pre-Oc Eo culture. The date of the Giong Noi site is estimated from about 2,300 BC to some centuries AD and BC, belonging to the final stage of the pre-Oc Eo culture.

The handicraft of making ceramics by Bana in Kon Tum some ethno- archaeological comparison

Bana ceramic production in Kon Turn appeared in about late 19th century, which was passed to women by Dak Ruong potters. The chemical, spectrum and petrographical analyses on some Bana ceramic samples and other ceramics found in Lung Leng site (Kon Tum), in comparison with ceramics making of Bana people at Dak T're have provided the Pre-prohistorians with valuable, factual data about some relevant matters: Definition of provenance of materials for ceramic making, reserving character of technique, production tools, kilns, baking techniques, firing fuels, materials and techniques of making glaze. Especially, the tools for smoothing the surface - Tomo stones - might help much in explanation of the appearance of rather rich "grinding stones", "pestles" made of pebbles at Lung Leng site.

The results of petrographical analysis at Hang Cho site (Hoa Binh province)

15 samples for petrographical analysis at Hang Cho site include stone flakes from different trenches and levels of the 2004 excavation. The results of petrographical analysis under the pole-division microscrope show that it is possible to divide the samples into the following types: - Magma (chiefly erupted magma) with the main composition of feldspar, glass, clorit, rock cores, epidot, with some amphibol and pyroxen. Of which, the basalt samples almost consist of some core; - Sediment and degraded deposit all consist of fairly solid architecture and composition. The main components are quartz, feldspar and rock fragments. Some samples have cement as glue. The analysis samples almost belong to basalt with the characteristics of being light, solf, fragile; the broken fragments have sharp edges, very suitable to make such tools as knives, axes, scrapers... The samples of sediments and degraded are hard enough to make good tools but in small quantity because their weight is heavier than basalt.

The study utility coins in Nguyen dynasty

The paper introduces and discusses about the folkloric utility coins from the Nguyen Dynasty: Gia Long reign (1802-1819), Minh Mang reign (1820-1840), Thieu Tri reign (1841-1847), Tu Duc reign (1848-1883), the period between 1883-1885, Dong Khanh period (1885-1888), Thanh Thai period (1889-1907), Duy Tan reign (1907-1916), Khai Dinh reign (1917-1925) and Bao Dai reign (1925-1945). The Nguyen Dynasty coins included clear face value. The government always paid much attention to the coining, issuing coins and the prevention of false coins. Besides, the Nguyen government let coin the type from the prior periods, which shows the ideas, poits of view of the unity and inheritance.

The system of Van Don trade port through the historical and archaeological data

The name Van Don (Quang Ninh province) appeared in the Ly Dynasty. The first archaeological finds at Van Don were in 1936. A long time after that, till 1968, especially in the last years of the 20th century, the early 21st century, the archaeological investigations, excavations and studies have been carried out systemmatically on a large scale. Apart from the architectural, religious and historical relics at the sides of the pools that used to be the ancient port, there are many finds of ceramics, terra cotta wares and porcelain of Vietnam and China from the 11th - 19th century, of which the richest in quantity is from the 13th - 14th century. From the historical data in combination with the archaeological studies to date, it is possible to see that in 1149, the Ly dynasty set up a masion at Van don for exchange and trade with the foreign merchants. In the Tran dynasty, Van Don became the most important trade port in the Northeast region. In the Le period, together with the strenthening of the national security, the economic development, especially the power to control foreign trade were paid much attention to. Van Don actually declined at the end of the Nguyen Dynasty.