Đông Sơn culture

Drum from Sông Đà, Vietnam. Dong Son II culture. Mid-1st millennium BCE. Bronze.

Close-up view of design of a typical Dong Son drum

The Đông Sơn culture (literally "East Mountain culture", but from the name of Đông Sơn village (archaeological site)) was a prehistoric Bronze Age culture in Vietnam centered at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. At this time the first Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc appeared. Its influence flourished to other parts of Southeast Asia, including the Maritime Southeast Asia from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.^[1][2][3]

The Đông Sơn people, who are also known as Lạc or Lạc Việt, were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping buffaloes and pigs, fishing and sailing with long dug-out canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, which is evidenced by the Đông Sơn drums found widely in Southeast Asia and Southern China.

Bronze figurine, Đông Sơn culture, 500 BCE-300CE. Thailand.

Similar artefacts have been found in Cambodia along the Mekong River dating back to the 4th millennium BC. Đông Sơn influence is seen throughout Southeast Asia, from the moko drum of Alor in Indonesia, which are suspected of originating with Đông Sơn bronze drums, to the design of keris knives.

To the south of the Đông Sơn culture was the proto-Cham Sa Huynh culture.

Origins

The origins of Đông Sơn culture may be traced back to ancient bronze castings. The traditional theory is 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 1970s. The casting of bronze began in Southeast Asia first and with the Chinese second, not vice versa.^[4] The Đông Sơn and other southeast Asian cultures were known to have used lost-wax bronze casting techniques from a very early time - perhaps predating the first millennium BCE.^{[citation needed]}

This interpretation is supported by the work of modern Vietnamese archaeologists. They have found that the earliest bronze drums of Đông Sơn are closely related in their basic structural features and decorative design to the pottery of the Phùng Nguyên culture. It is uncertain whether the bronze drums were made for religious ceremonies, to rally men for war, or for another secular activity. The various discerning images and arrow points engraved on the drums have led to speculation that the drums may have been used as a local seasonal calendar.^{[citation needed]}

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 Bali. ^{[citation needed]} Thus it became valued by people with very different cultures. The Đông Sơn 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 casting crucibles at one time. Most scholars agree the Đông Sơn drums display an artistic level reaching perfection that few cultures of the time could rival.^{[citation needed]}

Expansion of the Dong Son culture

The discovery in the late 17th century of large, elaborately incised "Dum" drums in mainland and maritime 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 Đông Sơn culture. Examples produced in Vietnam, in addition to works made locally, have been found in south China, in 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 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. The starburst pattern in the center of the tympanum, a standard motif on Đông Sơn 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 Đông Sơn 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.

See also

• Lạc Việt
• Đông Sơn drum
• Sa Huỳnh culture
• Vietnam

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dong Son culture.

• Đông Sơn culture (Photo collection)