Cultures of the Early Metal Age - (bằng tiếng Việt)

Archaeological and palaeo-environmental investigations of the Pre-Angkor period in the Mekong delta of Southeast Asia

Archaeological and palaeo-environmental investigations of the Pre-Angkor period in the Mekong delta of Southeast Asia

Location

Excavation site Go O Chua (7) and new discovered sites with similar pedestals

Since 1993, the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures of the German Archaeological Institute has been undertaking annual fieldwork in Vietnam. During the first ten years, this work was concentrated on the excavation and investigation of sites belonging to the Iron Age Sa Huynh culture of the last centuries BC in central Vietnam. In 2003, a new research project was started at the Gò Ô Chùa site in Long An province, just 2 km south of the frontier between southern Vietnam and Cambodia. Gò Ô Chùa consists of a range of three mounds - 450 m long, 150 m wide, and 4 m high. All three contain the remains of settlement, salt-making and a large burial ground. The site is situated about 100 km to the west-north-west of Saigon and at least 140 km away from the present seacoast.

Objectives

	Pedestal deposit - Southern hillock of Go O Chua.
	Southern part of Go O Chua.

In the next few years, field research should be extended to similar sites with salt-making ceramics on both sides of the border with Cambodia, in Long An and Svay Rieng provinces. These investigations should clarify the natural sources, technological methods, former coastline and cultural and exchange network of this salt-making area 1500 years before the Angkorian period. A second area of research is the cultural position of the graves of Gò Ô Chùa. It has to be clarified, as to what connections existed between the Óc-Eo-/Funan culture and the population of Gò Ô Chùa. 

Current Work

	Northern part of Go O Chua.
	Different pedestal types.

In 2008 to 2009, archaeological and geological surveys are planned to find similar salt-making ceramic sites and to solve the landscape-related questions. Anthropological examination of about 50 individuals at the burial site, mainly dated in the first millennium AD, has been completed and the results are currently in evaluation. The first volume of the excavation publication is in progress, to introduce the previous finds and excavation results at Gò Ô Chúa through about 15 papers by different specialists, and this will be printed in 2009. 

Results

	Ivory bracelet.
	Burial with pottery offerings.
	Southern part of Go O Chua.

During the previous excavation seasons up to 2006, the joint German-Vietnamese team discovered large deposits of ceramic pedestals from the last millennium BC of the same type as those found on European salt-boiling sites of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. The whole area of the Gò Ô Chùa site covers about 65,000 m2. So far, seven trenches with a combined area of 231 m2 in all three parts of the site have been excavated. At their centre, the mounds have cultural deposits up to 2,60 m in depth, decreasing to 0,60 m near the edges. The distribution of finds indicates that at least 40,000 m2 contain pedestals. Following a rough estimate, all three mounds at the Gò Ô Chùa site could include 10-20 million fragments from about 2-4 million pedestals. So far, we have not recovered any kind of pottery whose form or large quantity would support the assumption that they had been used as salt-boiling pots. Probably the boiling vessels were made out of organic materials like bamboo, coconut or palm spathes, the outer surfaces of which were protected by a lime coating, as described in both historical and ethnographic records. Radiocarbon dates from different points and layers within the pedestal refuse mounds suggest a continuous occupation sequence from 1000 to 350 BC. Moreover, a large burial site overlies these refuse layers. The graves are dated to different periods, but mostly in the first millennium AD. Hitherto, 64 graves have been excavated - the largest series of skeletal remains so far discovered either in southern Vietnam or southern Cambodia. These are mostly inhumations of both women and men, laid out on their backs very close to each other and oriented to the southeast. Among them, seven jar burials for infants were found and must be dated earlier to about the middle of the last millennium BC. Only one of the excavated inhumations is oriented to the west-north-west and has a date in the early phase of the burial site with inhumations. From the size of this cemetery across all three areas of Gò Ô Chùa, and from the burial density, we have to assume a total of more than 1,000 individuals. In the graves, we discovered iron arrowheads and spears, chisels and daggers; ring ornaments and axes made of bronze; and beads and bracelets made from glass or stone. Noteworthy are tiger tooth amulets and other ornaments and tools made from bone, antler or turtleshell. Many of the dead had sets of pottery in their grave, some conserving food remains (mostly fish or pig bones). In addition, beside pig jawbones, an entire pig skull was also deposited. Certainly, the most beautiful offering found so far is a pair of ivory bracelets with incised line decoration. Each bracelet consists of two halves, connected together by a pair of bronze hinges - at present, a unique find in Vietnam. In addition to these finds, the cultural layers containing burials have also yielded a rich ceramic collection, including 220 spindle whorls, 10 clay moulds for bronze-casting and 800 circular sherds, perhaps used as scrapers by the potters. 

Cooperation

	Excavation team - 2006.

Our Vietnamese partners are archaeologists from the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Vietnam National University, Hanoi (Dr. Lâm Thị Mỹ Dung, and Nguyễn Xuân Mạnh) from Hue University (Lê Duy Sơn) and from the Museum of Long An province (Dr. Bùi Phát Diệm). Scientific cooperation efforts exist with: Prof. Dr. Norbert Benecke, Natural Scientific Department of the Head Office of the German Archaeological Institute (Zoology); Karsten Brabänder, University of Bochum (Analysis of glass objects); Michael Francken, University of Tuebingen (Anthropology); Dr. Till J.J. Hanebuth, Dept. of Sedimentology / Paleoceanography, Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen (Geomorphology); Dr. Michael Prange, German Mining Museum in Bochum (Analysis of stone and metal objects); Dipl. Phys. Andreas Scharf, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Physical Institute Dep. IV, group KORA (AMS) in Erlangen (14C-analysis); Dr. Joachim Wahl, State Office for Historical Monuments of Baden-Wurttemberg, Dep. Preservation of Archaeological Remains in Konstanz (Osteology). 

Contact

Dr. Andreas Reinecke

Südostasien
Telefon: +49-(0)1888-7712 -25
Telefax: +49-(0)1888-7712- 49
Email: reinecke@kaak.dainst.de

Further Contact Partners

In Vietnam: Email: reineckeandreas@gmx.de Mobile phone: 0918481348

Bibliography

BibliographyAndreas Reinecke 1998, Rückblick auf ein Jahrhundert archäologischer Forschung in Vietnam: Ethnogr.-Archäol. Z. 39/2, 263-290. Andreas Reinecke / Lê Duy Sơn 1998, Einführung in die Archäologie Vietnams = Hành trình vào Khảo cổ học Việt Nam (AVA-Forschungen Band 5). Köln. Andreas Reinecke / Nguyễn Chiều / Lâm Thị Mỹ Dung 2002, Neue Entdeckungen zur Sa-Huỳnh-Kultur. Das Gräberfeld von Gò Mả Vôi und das kulturelle Umfeld in Mittelvietnam = Những phát hiện mới về văn hóa Sa Huỳnh. Khu mộ táng Gò Mả Vôi và vị thế văn hóa của nó ở miền Trung Việt Nam (AVA-Forschungen Band 7). Köln. Andreas Reinecke 2004, Reiche Gräber - frühes Salz: 600 Tage Feldforschungen auf Dünen und Reisfeldern (Vietnam). In: Expeditionen in vergessene Welten. 25 Jahre archäologische Forschungen in Amerika, Afrika und Asien (AVA-Forschungen Band 10). Aachen, 209-241. Andreas Reinecke / Till Hanebuth 2005, Gò Ô Chùa - ein neu entdeckter Salzsiedeplatz des 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr. - Indikator für Küstenveränderungen in Südvietnam? Bericht über eine archäologisch-geologische Expedition am Nordostrand des Mekong-Deltas nahe der südvietnamesisch-kambodschanischen Grenze. In: Annalen der Hamburger Vietnamistik, Heft 1, 49-61.