Showing posts with label ancient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ancient. Show all posts

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Restoring portraits of ancient Vietnamese

A group of scientists has tried to restore the faces of ancient
Vietnamese people who lived thousand years ago, revealing interesting
stories about their lives.


Eight years ago, people discovered
human skulls and skeletons dating back to the Dong Son age – 2,100 years
ago – in a tomb in Dong Xa, Kim Dong district, Hung Yen province.


With
a desire to discover more about the life of ancient Vietnamese people,
Dr. Nguyen Viet, Director of the Southeast Asia Prehistory Centre and
his colleagues reconstructed the face of a 17 to 18-year-old girl living
in Dong Son age, from the skull they found.


To do that the
scientists had to X-ray 100 people in Hung Yen province to check, adjust
and find out fundamental parameters of the figure of ancient people in
Dong Xa.


After this step, scientists continued to
restore the faces of three more women and a man, of whom the oldest was
about 40-45 years old. The scientists rebuilt not only the shape, but
also facial appearances.


Viet’s research on 60 Dong Son age
skeletons unearthed in Dong Xa showed that the average height of women
at that time was about 1.40m-1.50m and men, between 1.45m-1.65m.


For
long-term research, Dr. Viet built a place to store 70 skeletons of
ancient Vietnamese people, including the remains of those of Hoa Binh
culture dated tens of thousands of years ago, at Pham Huy Thong museum
in Quang Ninh province.


Scientists of the Southeast Asia
Prehistory Centre also worked with foreign counterparts to study and
detect common diseases of ancient Vietnamese people as well as the
reasons for their deaths.

They also studied samples of collected clothes, finding that the clothes were made from flax fibre.


Dr. Viet said that he plans to open the first museum of wax models of
ancient Vietnamese people and cooperate with US experts to restore the
faces and figures of these people using 3D technology./.

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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

More evidence of Oc Eo culture found in Ben Tre

Recent archaeological studies have revealed more evidence of the
existence of the Oc Eo culture dating back 2,000-2,500 years in the
Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre.


First traces of the ancient
culture were discovered by French archaeologist Louis Malleret, who gave
it the name of Oc Eo. The Oc Eo culture is believed to have formed and
developed in the southern delta, largely in An Giang, from the first to
the sixth century AD.


In the mid-1990s, a farmer named Huynh
Van Be in Binh Thanh village, Binh Phu commune found several stone
graters and axes in his garden. In 2003, a working team from the Vietnam
Institute of Archaeology (VIA) and the Ben Tre provincial Museum
conducted an excavation in the area and discovered more stone tools and
over 13,000 pieces of ceramics of all types.


After three
excavations and two exploration digs on a total area of 484.5 sq.m, the
experts collected nearly 500,000 artefacts, with 99 percent being
ceramics, and over 250 kilogrammes of animal and human bones as well as
Linga and Yoni objects.


The excavations also revealed vestiges of
an ancient village, which scientists named Giong Noi, including a
ceremic-burning ground, several large kitchens and big houses. The
experts believe that Giong Noi people had their own religious beliefs
which might have links with the Brahmanism as seen in the worshipping of
stone, tortoise, and the sacred objects of Linga and Yoni.


The
findings at the Giong Noi site may be considered one of the most
important achievements of the Vietnamese archaeological sector in recent
years, said researcher Nguyen Kim Dung.


Recently, the VIA has
discovered for the first time vestiges of a big ancient architectural
work in An Phong village, A Thanh commune, Mo Cay Nam district, drawing
special attention of researchers and archaeologists.


According to
Dr. Ha Van Can from the VIA, ancient architectural materials in An
Phong are remarkably similar with those found in the Go Thanh relic in
Tien Giang province, which date from the 4th-8th centuries.


VIA
experts said the vestiges found in An Phong are an invaluable historical
data which reveal the development of the local culture and great
achievements made by ancient people here, contributing to the
establishment and development of the national culture./.

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Hanoi boasts many ancient citadels

Ha Noi is the only locality in the country with many ancient citadels.
Most popular are Co Loa, Thang Long Royal Citadel and Son Tay.


Located
in Dong Anh district, 17km from the centre of Hanoi, Co Loa citadel has
numerous archaeological sites excavated. Discoveries have shown the
continuous development of the culture from the Bronze, Stone and Iron
ages to the pinnacle of Dong Son culture.


Archaeologists said
that Co Loa was the most ancient citadel in Vietnam with unique
architecture and scale. The citadel used to be the capital of the
country under King An Duong Vuong dynasty in the third century BC and
the Ngo Quyen era in the 10th century.


The archaeological relics
show the techniques for building ramparts and reveal military tactics
from the early days of the ancient Vietnamese people who took advantages
of the natural terrain to build meandering citadel.


On the 6 th
day of the first lunar month of the year, local people hold an annual
festival to remember the citadel builders and King An Duong Vuong.


Thang Long Imperial Citadel has been recognised as a world cultural
heritage site, as it boasts treasures, both buried and visible, more
than 1,300 years old.

The site encompasses the No. 18
Hoang Dieu archaeological site and the central axis of the Hanoi
ancient citadel, which are nestled in the Forbidden Area in the heart of
Thang Long Imperial Citadel.


At the No. 18 Hoang Dieu
archaeological site, scientists found imprints typical of the Ly, Tran
and Le dynasties that revealed much about the origin of Thang Long
Imperial Citadel more than 1,300 years ago.


Lying adjacent to Kinh Thien Palace to the west, the No. 18 Hoang Dieu
archeological site is a component of the Forbidden Area from the Ly
dynasty to the end of the Le Trung Hung era.


From December 2002
to March 2004, archaeologists excavated numerous artefacts on 19,000 sq.
m of the site, exposing layers of cultures of different dynasties which
reigned in Vietnam and proving that Thang Long Imperial City
played a key role as a political centre throughout the 1,300 years.


Architectural vestiges of palaces, pavilions, and the foundations of
architectural structures of the Imperial Citadel have also been
revealed.


A system of ancient wells was exposed,
including two believed to exist in the Dai La era, two built under the
Ly dynasty, two under the Tran dynasty, and six under the Le dynasty.
These wells have a similar shape and size to those found in the
forbidden citadels in Japan , China and the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea .


The No. 18 Hoang Dieu
archaeological site has supplied clear evidence of the site’s important
role throughout the nation’s history, from 1010 to 1789.


Situated to the east of the No. 18 Hoang Dieu archaeological site is
Hanoi ’s ancient citadel area - the remainder of the central axis of
the Vauban building.


Many buildings inside the
citadel were constructed by French colonists during the 1880s after they
occupied Hanoi . There are also some important buildings built after
1954, which served as the headquarters of the Defence Ministry until
2004.


Son Tay citadel, covering 16 ha in Son Tay twonship,
40km from Hanoi’s centre, has a military rampart with special
architectural features.


The ancient military architecture was built under the Nguyen dynasty, under the reign of King Minh Mang in 1822.

The citadel was built with an overall square shape, with each wall
about 400m long and 5m high, built in the Vauban style.

One of the four main ports, or entries, the south gate was called Tien
(front) gate; the north was the Hau (back) port, the east, Ta (left)
main and the west, Huu (right) main.


After nearly 200 years
and with much devastation, ancient Son Tay citadel now has only the
walls, doors, door posts, two cannons and some ruins at Vong Lau, the
foundation of Kinh Thien palace and the wells.


Hanoi is investing in preserving those citadels to attract tourists to the city./.

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