Ancient site · Settlement
Đông Sơn
Also known as Dong Son village
Đông Sơn is a village on the Ma River in Thanh Hóa Province, Vietnam, where bronze objects were first excavated in 1924. It gave its name to the Đông Sơn culture of the Red River and neighbouring valleys.
Its people grew rice, kept water buffalo and pigs, sailed dugout canoes and were expert bronze casters. Their great bronze drums, cast with scenes of boats, warriors, houses and birds, were traded across Southeast Asia and southern China. The culture is often linked with the Lạc Việt, ancestors of the Vietnamese.
- Dates
- c. 1000 BCE – 1st century CE (culture)
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 19.82° N, 105.80° E
How we know
The Đông Sơn people left no writing of their own; the site is dated by archaeology, and Chinese texts describe the region only from outside.
Nearby sites
- Cổ Loa Citadel c. 4th–2nd century BCE
- Plain of Jars jars placed perhaps c. 1240–660 BCE; burials at Site 1 8th–13th centuries CE
- Ban Chiang c. 2000 or 1500 BCE – c. 200 CE (start date disputed)
- Spirit Cave c. 12,000–7,000 radiocarbon years ago (very roughly 10,000–5500 BCE)
- Óc Eo c. 2nd century BCE – 7th century CE
- Beikthano c. 200 BCE – 6th century CE
Related
- Đông Sơn culture archaeological culture
- The world in 1000 BCE: Out of the Collapse chapter