Dong Son Culture

a developed Bronze Age culture (sixth-first centuries B.C.) widespread principally in North Vietnam. It was named after a settlement and burial site near the village of Dong Son (province of Thanh Hoa, Democratic Republic of Vietnam), which was excavated from 1924 to 1928, from 1934 to 1939, and in 1961. The burial ground at Thieu Duong (excavated by archaeologists of the DRV from 1960 to 1965) is also typical of the Dong Son culture. The culture is characterized by bronze articles of high craftsmanship (ritual drums decorated with drawings, daggers, knives, axes). Stone tools, pottery made using a potter’s wheel, clay models of dwellings, and some iron articles have also been found. The people of the Dong Son culture were familiar with irrigated farming. Anthropologically, the people of the culture were related to the southern Mongoloids and, to a lesser extent, to the Australo Negritos. The Dong Son culture is presumably linked to the Lac Viets, the predecessors of the contemporary Vietnamese, who were in the transitional stage from the primitive communal system to an early form of class society.