Archéologie : nouvelles découvertes de la culture Phùng Nguyên

The pottery vessels unearthed belonged to the Phung Nguyen culture from Xom Ren site located on the left bank of Lo River in Phu Tho Province, Northern Vietnam in the 1960s.

Lors de la 2e fouille, de nouvelles découvertes ont été mises au jour au site archéologique Nghia Lâp, district de Vinh Tuong, province de Vinh Phuc (Nord). Ce site a été révélé en 1962 et appartient à la culture Phùng Nguyên d'il y a 3.600 ans. Cette fois-ci, les archéologues ont retrouvé des objets en pierre, en céramique, des bijoux et des morceaux de jarres, de vases avec des ornements représentatifs de ladite culture Phùng Nguyên. (source CVN)

From October to early December 2002, the Centre for Chinese Art and Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology of the Vietnamese Institute of Social Sciences cooperated to excavated the site of Xom Ren located on the left bank of Lo River in Phu Tho Province, Northern Vietnam. The excavation area was about 100 square meters. It belonged to the Phung Nguyen culture. The thickest cultural layer was measured to be about two meters. Four earth-pit tombs were discovered. Tombs no. 1 and 3 contained delicate jade pieces. 112 pieces of jade beads and ornaments were found in situ. They were among the most important decorative arts of Phung Nguyen Culture. Each of tombs no. 2 and 4 was unearthed with a male and a female set of skeletons, all were well-preserved. The skeletal remains were removed in situ and put on display in the provincial museum. In addition, also found in the cultural layers were jade specimens, including jade rings, slit rings, bi (disks), and beads; stone specimens, including stone bark beaters. The most important thing being found was a small jade yazhang (broken). Similar type of yazhang was only found in the site of Sanxingdui. This indicated that a special relationship probably existed between the Sanxingdui culture of the ancient Shu Kingdom and the Phung Nguyen culture. (source http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/ccaa/en/trip4.htm)

Excavation at zone III, Xom Ren site.

Abundant number of pottery shards was found in zone II, Xom Ren site.

Experts were examining the finds in tomb no. 2, zone II. (from the left: Nguyen Anh Tuan, Associate Director of Phu Tho Provinical Museum; Nguyen Lan Cuong, Vietnamese anthropologist; Dr. Tang Chung, Director of the Centre for Chinese Art and Archaeology; Nguyen Viet, archaeologist; Nguyen Kim Dung, Vietnamese archaeologist; Naoto Tomioka, zooarchaeologist of Okayama University of Science, Japan.)

Excavation of tomb no. 4 in zone II, Xom Ren site.

Tomb no. 2 in zone II, Xom Ren site.

Zone III, Xom Ren site.

A potter jar found in zone III, Xom Ren site.

The stone bark beater found in zone III, Xom Ren site.