The culture of Dong Son is the summit of tha age of bronze and of the beginning of the age of iron in Vietnam. In recent years, the study of that culture has obtained important acquirements. The exhibition hall entitled :” Echo of Dong Son – Newly discovered objects in 2004 – 2009” in the National Museum of Vietnamese History is considered as a phenomenon of archaeology with more than 100 objects presented for the first time, mainly bronze objects and ceramics of the time of Dong Son. There are objects which have not appeared in the collections of Dong Son in the country as well as in the world, such as the collection of lampadaries in the site of Lang Vac (Nghe An), reflecting a religious mentality of the population of Dong Son, the bronze drum having a form and queer decorations as men drawing boats, found in the High Lands. The jar with pedestral pierced with holes is also a very original objects. It is one of the two jars with pedestral pierced with holes that have never been seen so far in the collections of bronze objects of Vietnam.
The culture of Dong Son is the summit of tha age of bronze and of the beginning of the age of iron in Vietnam. In recent years, the study of that culture has obtained important acquirements. The exhibition hall entitled :”
Echo of Dong Son – Newly discovered objects in 2004 – 2009” in the National Museum of Vietnamese History is considered as a phenomenon of archaeology with more than 100 objects presented for the first time, mainly bronze objects and ceramics of the time of Dong Son. There are objects which have not appeared in the collections of Dong Son in the country as well as in the world, such as the collection of lampadaries in the site of Lang Vac (Nghe An), reflecting a religious mentality of the population of Dong Son, the bronze drum having a form and queer decorations as men drawing boats, found in the High Lands. The jar with pedestral pierced with holes is also a very original objects. It is one of the two jars with pedestral pierced with holes that have never been seen so far in the collections of bronze objects of Vietnam.
The jar is a recipient of the population of Dong Son. The archaeologists have found in the jars ashes of the dead. It is the habit of incineration of the population of Dong son, which is not a habit of the buddhism. The archaeologists have also found in jars human bones. They are little coffins in which the dead are re-buried. These phenomena show us the richness and the diversification of the modes of burial of the population of Dong son in their conceptions of life and death.
The jar presented in the exhibition “Echo of dong Son “ has a very particular structure: the lid is semi-spheric, the mouth is round, the body is spherical until the bottom, the ears are two double rings. The body has decorations in relief, representing hachures in parallel, tangential circles, the foot is pierced with holes. The interior of the jar is still a mystery for the scientific men because the lid is fixed to the body by a very solid cement which they could not open. Such a little jar is probably a recipient containing ashes of the dead in the habit of incineration of the people of Dong son.
A hypothesis remains a hypothesis so far as the lid of the jar is not opened (photo: jar wih lid).
Huyền Thanh