Vietnam's prehistoric

With an area of 200 square meters and over 1,000 exhibits, this section introduces different stages of
prehistoric development in Vietnam’s territories. The primitive people, to exist, created famous
successive cultures from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic periods, about 300,000 years to 4,000 years
ago. The whole exhibition room is divided into two periods:

- Paleolithic period with vestiges and cultures in Nui Do, Than Sa, and Son Vi. Typical artifacts: hand-
axes, coarse chopping tools, anthropoids’ teeth and fossil animal skeletons, grapefruit-section-shaped
instruments, pebble tools, axes with horizontal or vertical blades, etc.

- Neolithic period with the cultures of Hoa Binh, Bac Son, Quynh Van, Da But, Cai Beo, Ha Long, Hoa
Loc, Xom Con, etc. Typical artifacts include short axes, dish-shaped tools, oval tools, almond-shaped
instruments, ceramics, rectangular axes, shouldered axes and the like. This collection proves the
development of stone manipulating techniques from coarse axes to various tools of the primitive
people.

The exhibition section starts with the relics and artifacts (hand-axes, coarse chopping tools, flakes of
the early Paleolithic period discovered at the archaeological sites of Nui Do, Quan Yen (Thanh Hoa),
Hang Gon, Dau Giay (Xuan Loc, Dong Nai). Especially, there are teeth of the anthropoids and the
animal fossils skeletons found in the rock-shelters of Tham Khuyen and Tham Hai (Tan Van, Lang
Son) and other palaeobiologic vestiges at Phai Ve, Keo Leng (Lang Son), Hang Hum (Yen Bai). These
are the oldest evidences of the primitive people in Vietnam, about 300,000-400,000 years ago. The
late Paleolithic vestiges are represented by the two archaeological cultures of Than Sa (Thai Nguyen)
and Son Vi (Phu Tho), about 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. The common feature of these two cultures is
the use of pebbles to manifacture instruments with different techniques. In Than Sa, the tools are
mainly retouched flake points, meanwhile in Son Vi, the almond-shaped instruments are used.

The next section introduces the vestiges of the Neolithic period with the Hoa Binh Culture, a famous
archaeological culture in Southeast Asia and the world. The Hoa Binh Culture mainly distributed in
rock-shelter and caves in Hoa Binh, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, and Thanh Hoa Provinces. This culture dates
back 10,000 to 16,000 years ago. The characteristics of the Hoa Binh Culture is that all tools were
manipulated from pebbles by striking and chipping on one face. The tools are rich and used for
specific purposes. The exhibits in this sections are short axes, dish-shaped tools, almond-shaped tools
and some edge ground axes. The appearance of ceramics and the analysis results of pollen spores
are clear evidences for the beginning of a farming agriculture in this region.

The Bac Son Culture (8,000-10,000 years ago) follows the Hoa Binh Culture. There are many artifacts
of this culture – edge ground axes, grindingstone, pestles and pounding slabs, stones with two
parallels hollows (named “Bac Son marks”), handled axes, ceramics, human skulls – reflecting the
higher development than the Hoa Binh Culture. The Bac Son Culture also distributed among rock-
shelters and caves in the limestone mountains in the provinces of Lang Son, Thai Nguyen, and Cao
Bang.

After the Bac Son Culture are archaeological vestiges dating back 5,000-6,000 years ago. The
exhibited artifacts include the relics discovered in the coastal shellmound in Quynh Van (Nghe An), Da
But (Thanh Hoa), Cai Beo (Hai Phong), Bau Du (Quang Nam), etc.

The late Neolithic period is exhibited in the remaining area of the exhibition section, with a large
number of relics and artifacts from all corners of the country, from the midlands, highlands, plain to the
coast and islands. The primitive people during this period developed their stone manipulating
techniques (chipping, sawing, drilling, grinding, filing, pressing, polishing) to the peak of elaborateness
and aesthetics and made a variety of sophisticated tools and jewelry (rectangular axes, shouldered
axes, earrings, bracelets, rings of beads, terracotta containers with beautiful decorative patterns).
All the earliest vestiges of the primitive people and their original cultures continuously developing from
the Paleolithic to the Neolithic periods in Vietnam are important social material background for the
country to enter the Metal Age – the first stage of the national building with many specific identities.

Grinding slab and pestle

 
In the stone tools complex of the Hoa Binh Culture, the grinding slab and pestles are classified in the
type of natural pebble and the quantity is not great.

The pestle was made of a natural pebble in the form of a cylinder or a weight, large enough to handle
it. The pestle has some wears or holed notches.These are the vestiges left from grinding and
pounding the kernels or fruits on the grinding slab. The grinding slap was made of sandstone or schist
or limestone into varied forms. The grinding slab has one or two curved sunken surfaces which could
be eroded in nature or carved by man. The grinding slab has also some wears and notches.

The appearance of the grinding slab and pestle in Hoa Binh culture reflects the change in the way of
looking for food and the economic structure of the Hoa Binh men.

Pebble tools

 
Lower Palaeolithic, cirea 300.000-200.000 years before present.
Xuan Loc site, Dong Nai province
 Stone tools and potsherds

 
Circa 20.000-30.000 years before present
Nguom rock – shelter, Thai Nguyen province, Northern Viet Nam

Terracotta, late-neolithic, about 3,500 - 4,000 years B.P.

Paddles for impressing decoration on pottery

 The collection of the impressing paddles discovered in late-neolithic sites is great in number and
specific in features. The popularity and development of pottery techniques as well as the means to
produce highly skilful pottery discovered in great quantity is an evidence of it.
 
The late-neolithic potteries are abundant in quantity, shapes and decorative patterns. Pots, vases,
tureens, bowls, jars, knobbed-lids, conical-based recipients, funneled recipients, parallelepiped boxes,
ear rings and bracelets… bear the specificity of this late- neolithic pottery. Pottery was usually made of
sandy clay with a lot of mixtures, so the paste was not soft and usually black in the core. It was wheel
made and also hand-made; the degree of firing was relatively high in quality. Particularly the Hoa Loc
pottery was decorated with prolifie and beautiful patterns. Patterns in this period were not merely of
technical character, they also expressed the artistic and aesthetic concern of the people. Besides,
there was a great demand in quantity to store, preserve and process foods and foodstuffs.
 
In the process of making potteries, the making of patterns is one of the time-consuming stages. The
late-neolithic people were very intelligent and creative, as could be seen through the terracotta seals
to stamp patterns. Those impressed decoration patterns were abundant in kinds and shapes. The
faces of these seals were smooth or somewhat curved, with knobs. On their surface geomatric or
revolved patterns were incised, creating thus the very specificity of this kind of pottery. Those
geometric patterns with a great variety of remarkable motifs and designs being incised, impressed,
chiselled, punched, carved in relief. The most popular designs were larvae, water drops, fish scales,
muscial scores, circle with a centre dot, swallow wings, shrimps, horizontal S, flowers or water waves
and so on.
 
The cultural relics in the late-neolithic sites, including the abundant and beautiful patterns, show that
people in this period were the agricultors who had a rather high level of pottery making and enable of
translating their remarkable specificity, thus making a contribution to enriching further the treasure of
prehistoric potteriy of Vietnam.
 Stone tools and jewlries of bonne, shell Mai Pha culture, circa
3.500-4.000 years before present Lang Sơn province - Northern Viet Nam

Stone tools and potsherds

Middle Neolithic, circa 5-7.000 years before present

Sites of Cai Beo, Hai Phong province and Quynh Van, Nghe An province

stone tools

Teeth of Homosapieng

Lete pleinstocene , circa 100.000 years

Kéo Lèng cave, Lạng Sơn province, Northern Vietnam.
 The Teeth of Homo erectus apemen

Fossils, Tham Khuyen, Tham Hai caves (Tan Van - Lang Son province), 300,000 - 400,000 years B.P.
The Teeth of Homo erectus apemen
 
Fossilized apemen in Vietnam were discovered for the first time in the two caves Tham Khuyen and
Tham Hai, Tan Van commune, Bình Gia district, Lang Son province in 1964 and 1965. In these caves
the archaeologists discovered 10 teeth of apeman (Homo erectus) and many animal bones and teeth
already fossilized in the red sediment.

Among those ten teeth, one milk-tooth in the upper jaw, one upper incisor, one lower canine, two
upper molars and one lower molar. From almost those teeth, there remains but the chewing parts and
the stump parts have been gnawed away by animals before being fossilized. Only one upper incisor
has its stump left.

The paleo: anthropologists having studied these fossil teeth remark that all these 10 teeth have the
primitive characteristics of large size with developed cingulum, the upper molars of cubic or diamond
shapes, the lower molars of symetrical form, the chewing face of the typical Dryopithecus type (type
Y5). All the lower jaw teeth have five tops, in which the metaconid top is the largest.

In Vietnam, though the locations where fossils are found are still not many with incomplete skulls and
not coexisting with the tools, these teeth prove that Vietnam in the Pleistocene was already the land
where the apemen (Homo erectus) were lived and grown.

The model of caves, the dwelling - places of Hoa Binh men

About 8,000 - 16,000 years B.P. The model of caves, the dwelling - places of Hoa Binh men

 
The pre-history has sunk into the past for tens of thousands of years, yet in the light of the social
sciences studies, particularly archaeology, the facies of the primitive society together with the material,
spiritual and cultural life has been gradually restored. On the basis of the achievements of many
branches of science, the National Museum of Vietnamese History has restored and reproduced a
complex of caves, the dwelling-places of the Early Neolithic men.
 
The Hoa Binh men resided mainly in caves and rock-shelters which are cool in summer and warm in
winter. The caves have smooth floors with quite recesses and receive a lot of sun light. They are not
so high with the ways easy for men but difficult for animals. These caves are near the river, stream or
lake and pond with enough water for their living and a favourable hunting ground and a good supply of
natural food such snails, shrimps, crabs and fishes. The caves are to be near the river so as to be able
to exploit the material to process tools, and most important of all is the prevalence of a population of
abundant fauna and flora in the valley.
 
Through the arrangement inside the cave, we could see the Hoa Binh men’s high consciousness of a
collective and individual life. In the middle of the cave is the fireplace. Women and children are allowed
to live in the wind-shield places. The fire place which plays an important role in the material and
spiritual life is usually placed in the middle of the cave, but near to the mouth of the cave. Many
activities happened around this place. In the complex, we could see two persons working by the fire:
the man was processing a stone tool by flakking it directly on his hands, without a stone-pad to do it.
Beside him, a woman is using the grinding slab and pestle. In a wind-shield place, a mother is sitting
on a bamboo flatform, tending her child. Far away down in the valley, women and children are working
hard, collecting wild vegetables and looking for snails in the stream. From a forest, men are
shouldering the hunted animals back to the cave.
 
The Hoa Binh cave complex helps the visitors understand more about the life of the Early Neolithic
men in Vietnam tens of thousands of years ago.

Tools of stone,bones and teeth of animals, shells potterie

soraments Xom Con culture, Southern central Late Neolithic, circa 3.000 - 3.500 years before
present

Phung Nguyen Culture

The Phung Nguyen Culture (4,000 years ago) was discovered in 1959 mainly in some midland and
plain provinces in North Vietnam (Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Ha Tay, Bac Ninh and Hanoi).

Phung Nguyen is the first culture of the Bronze Age in Vietnam. During this period, people invented
the metallurgical technique to produce instruments and weapons which helped them more effectively
in conquering the nature and improving their life. The vestiges of this culture are almost the open-air
settlement sites scattered at the high plain, near the springs and streams, in the river basins and high
hills and mounds in the plains and coasts. A large number of artifacts of various materials and
categories show that the economy of this period more developed than the previous time, especially in
agriculture and husbandry, with the popularization of fishing and hunting tools (arrows, spearheads,
net-sinkers). Obviously, hunting and gathering still played an important role in the then economic life.

- Stone manifacture: The rich collection of production tools, both finished and semifinished, discovered
at a jewelry manipulating workshop in Trang Kenh (Hai Phong), proves that the stone manifacturing
skills reached their peak. Most of stone tools and jewelry are smoothed, small but very elaborate,
including chisels, drill-bits, saw blades, earrings, rings, bracelets, bead-rings. Especially, there is the
stone figurette of a man recovered in Van Dien (Hanoi), which is imbued with prosperous elements of
agricultural dwellers.

- Ceramic production is a handicraft developed strongly during this period. The majority of ceramic
products were made by hand with the potter’s wheel, so they are well proportioned and good-looking.
The Phung Nguyen people could mix sand or other impurities with clay to prevent ceramic articles
from deformation when being dried or baked at a high temperature. The decorative patterns and motifs
are quite rich (lines, scratches, incised design with letter S pattern, soft bands of symmetrical
triangles). Small clay spindle whorls and other stone instruments prove that thread spinning, cloth
weaving and carpentry were developed.

- Bronze casting: No bronze working tools but some lumps of brass and patina were found at some
archaeological sites, evidencing that the Phung Nguyen people knew about refining bronze. These are
the bronze alloys of copper, tin and lead.

Human figurine

 
At the end of the Neolithic period, the stone processing techniques reached the pinnacle of
development. Such products as tools, ornaments were great in quantity and diverse in shape and size.
Particularly the small-sized stone objects appeared and became more and more popular with skilful
techniques. In this period, intruments and tools were improved, the mode of production changed,
materials wealth became more abundant, thus leading to the coming into being of some handicrafts,
including the ornaments making. Many stone processing workshops with high professional level were
formed. This stone human figurine should have been one of the skilfully processed things of these
workshops.
 
The figurine was unearthed at the Van Dien archeological site. This is the first ever discovered stone
human figurine. It was made of nephrit, depicting a man in the half kneeling, half standing position.
The face was made in a stylized, generalized method, however, still looks quiet lively. The whole face
was carved into two symmetrical concave bevels and the line of intersection constituted a high nose
bridge. Two proportioned small holes are the two eyes, creating the living soul to the statue, making it
more vivid. Though the figurine is not completely intact, it also shows the balanced and precise head-
body-legs proportion, proving that the artisan knew very well the human body structure.
 
The stone figurine has two noticeable details:
 - On the head - top of the statue there remains a portion of a holed notch to thread through. This
proves that the small figurine was worn round the neck as a religious ornament.
- The male sex of the figurine is clearly reflected, probably this is a manifestation of worshipping the
genitals - a common belief of the population practising wet-rice agriculture in the Southeast Asia
region.
 
This is a human ronderbosse rarely found in the sites of the pre-Dong Son culture of Vietnam.

Dong Dau Culture

The Dong Dau Culture was discovered in 1962 at Dong Dau (Minh Tan, Yen Lac, Vinh Phuc). This
culture distributed in the same area of the Phung Nguyen people. The Dong Dau people lived open-air
on the hills and mounds of the Northern midlands in the provinces of Phu Tho, Ha Tay, Vinh Phuc,
Bac Giang and Bac Ninh. They had a developed and sustainable economy based on the cultivation of
rice and other crops. Burnt rice, animal bone and hunting tools (spears, harpoons, arrows, fishing-
hooks made of bone, stone and bronze) were discovered at many archaeological sites of this culture.
Obviously, the people still continued hunting and gathering activities beside agricultural production.

Especially, metallurgy and bronze casting techniques were highly developed. Many relics and traces
of bronze casting craft (patina, mould pieces, wastes and finished bronze tools such as fishing hooks,
arrows, spearheads, harpoons) were found at most of the archaeological sites of this period.

A large number of stone jewelry and original bands of decorative patterns on ceramic products are the
evidences of a rich spiritual life and high aesthetics of the Dong Dau people.

Go Mun Culture

The Go Mun Culture was discovered in 1961 at Tu Xa (Phong Chau, Phu Tho). The archaeological
sites of this culture are scattered on low hills, along the streams, springs, ponds and lakes in the
provinces of Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Ha Tay and Hanoi. The main method of earning of the Go
Mun people was to cultivate wet rice, agricultural crops and develop husbandry. Besides, the hunting
remained a provision of food because a lot of bones and teeth of wild animals could be found at these
archaeological sites.

Ceramic products were skillfully made by the Go Mun people. Made of the mixtures of clay, sand and
other impurities and baked at 800-9000C, the then ceramic articles are often blackish gray or light red.
The traditional decorative patterns of symmetrical geometry on the Go Mun ceramics are abundantly
created by carving, scratching, printing, beating and embossing.

The bronze casting was inherited and further developed by the Go Mun people. Bronze working tools
were diversified, mainly oblique-working edge axes, chisels, harpoons, fishing-hooks, pointed
instruments. Some stone tools were still used, including rectangular axes, bronze casting moulds, net-
sinkers, jewelry.

The economic development during this period, especially the bronze casting techniques, is a
precondition for the formation of the Dong Son Culture and the Van Lang-Au Lac State later.

Dong Son Culture

The Dong Son Culture was discovered in 1924 in Thanh Hoa. Formed and flourished on the basis of a
long combination of the previous cultures, this culture was broadly distributed from the northern
borderline to the southern part of the Ngang Pass (Quang Binh), mainly concentrating in the basins of
three big rivers of Hong, Ma and Ca. The metallurgy and bronze casting techniques peaked in this
period, with various categories and rich decorative patterns vividly reflecting the ancient Vietnamese
society in the first stage of the national building.

- Agriculture: With the development of bronze casting, the Dong Son people could produce many
sharp agricultural tools (hoes, spades, shears). At Co Loa (Dong Anh, Hanoi), hundreds of bronze
ploughshares were recovered, proving that the Dong Son people knew to exploit cattle’s strength in
agricultural activities. They also grew many other crops.

- Bronze casting: The Dong Son Culture was the peak of the Bronze Age and the early period of the
Iron Age in Vietnam, lasting from the 7th century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. It was this period when
the Vietnamese people were the master of materials and bronze processing techniques.

In the collection of the Dong Son bronze objects, weapons account for a considerable share, with
various types and rich decorative motifs, including axes, spears, harpoons, arrows, breastplates.
Some daggers have the T shaped handles, onion bulb, or women wearing short skirts. On the hilt of a
sword found at Lach Truong (Thanh Hoa), there is a woman in a long dress.

Household utensils include jars, jugs, vases, saucers, basins, pots, etc., the majority of which are jars
with original decorative patterns combining human figures, animals, birds and bands of
concentric/tangential circles and geometric patterns. Some jars were excavated containing jewelry and
other instruments, even skulls, ash or remains of the deceased.

 
The jewelry of the Dong Son people are abundant. They are made of different materials, especially
bronze. There are different kinds of bronze bracelets (tube bracelets, those with padlocks, those
having T-shaped section), brooches, buckles. Gemstones (green limestone, quartz, agate and colored
glass) were also used in bracelets, earrings, necklaces.

Funeral bronze drums: Bronze drums are the most famous artifacts of the Dong Son people. The
burial of funeral instruments and bronze drums reflects the then conception that the deceased also
needed to use tools to recreate their afterworld life. Through these artifacts, we can better understand
the material and spiritual life of the Dong Son people.

The burial methods of the Dong Son people are different. They could exploit soil graves, tombs laid
with stones, jar-burials and boat shaped coffin burials (that at Viet Khe, Hai Phong) – a distinctive kind
of tomb.

Arrowheads, bronze

Dong Son culture, 2000-2500 BP

Intact;  L: 7.2cm;

Axes

Bronze, Ha Dong-Ha Tay province, about 2,500 years B.P. Axes

 
Axe is a popular production tool and weapon, prevailing in every ancient culture. In the Dong Son
culture, axes were discovered in many sites in a great quantity and diversity in shape and utility. In the
collection of bronze Dong Son axes, those with asymetric blades come to be one of many
characteristics and particularities of this culture. These were production tools of common use and at
the same time used as a weapon ofstrong point of the Dong Son people.
 
The Ha Dong original bronze axe below is classified as a rare and precious pediform axe due to its
shape and beautiful decorative patterns. The axe looks like a curly toed boot. It is 9.5cm long, the
blade 5cm wide. On one side of the blade was decorated a vivid scene of hunting by boat framed with
bands of double-lozenges. The hunting is described as follows: a curly-nose boat with three hunters
standing on the bow, two of them on the front of it, raising the javalins in their hands over their heads
as if they are to throw them, while the third person standing at the back with no weapon, but he carries
a round object on his belly, probably the gong, his right hand (hidden) support the gong and his left
hand raises at the rear as if he is beating the gong to drive the animal in. Under the bow are two deer
with large horns, one with a slender belly and the other a big belly (probably manifesting the male and
female deer).They are stretching their legs to run away. In front of them is a hunting dog, with a
slender belly, long muzzle, which is trying to obstruct the running away deer. The hunting by boat is so
lively.
 
The Ha Dong bronze axe is in itself a valuable object, enriching the collection of famous bronze Dong
Son axes. Apart from that, the decorative patterns help the researchers understand more about the
social life of the ancient Việt in this historical period.

Bracelet, bronze

Dong Son culture, 2000-2500 BP

Chipped;  D: 7.3cm;

Arrow-heads

Bronze, Co Loa, Dong Anh, Ha Noi City, about 2,200 years B.P.
Arrow-heads
 
Arrow-heads are the type of long range weapon, commonly found in the collection of bronze Dong
Son weapons. They are often unearthed in great quantity in archaeological sites such as Cau Vuc, Ma
Tre (Co Loa, Dong Anh, Ha Noi City). They are also often found in the set of burial goods in the large
tombs such as Thieu Duong (Thanh Hoa province), Lang Vac (Nghe An province).

They were found abundant and diverse in form, but the most noticable among other are the three-
sided arrows with stem, wing and haft discovered in Cau Vuc. This kind of arrow denotes not only the
successive evolution of the traditional three-sided arrows of the Red River people, but also the result
of convergence of two sources: the Red River and the progressive technical factors from the three-
sided arrows of the Eurasian steppe people through their confluence and intrusion into the habitat of
the Dong Son people.

The bronze Co Loa arrows are characterized by: the three-sided pyramidal or conical stem, slim wing
projected over the stem-axe. The long haft in oval or poligonal section. Such features tally well the
aerodynamic principle applied to the flying objects in space: reduction of friction, maintenance of
equilibrum while flying, the trajectory being stable ensuring thus precision when it reaches the target,
the pirced breach being large. These Co Loa bronze arrows can fully meet these technical quirements.

The historical events in the year 180 B.C. shows that when Trieu Da troops who invaded the country
of Au Lac of Thuc An Duong Vuong for the first time had to bear the humiliating defeats, partly
because they had to confront the strong force of these long range weapons, particularly when these
arrows were shot en mass from the arrow system of general Cao Lo, sending fear to the enemy
troops. Trieu Da himsefl to shout: these are divine arrows which the legend of those miraculous bows
and arrows has been deeply imprinted in the memories of the Vietnamese people until today.