Detecting primitive human relics

People in Phuc Son commune, Chiem Hoa district, Tuyen Quang province often go to Tham Vai cave in Ban Cham village to collect bat manure as fertilizer, gunpowder . During the digging process, they have revealed relics animals and relics of primitive people.

Recently, in early May 2008, archaeologists at the Vietnam Institute of Archeology and Tuyen Quang Provincial Museum conducted specialized surveys.

Tham Vai is a large cave, located on the slopes of limestone mountains of Ban Cham village, about 40 meters high compared to the foot of the mountain.

In the area near the mouth of the cave, archaeologists conducted a survey to explore a hole of 3m ² wide. The survey results initially showed that traces of primitive people found mainly in the middle of the cave. The cultural floor is about 2m thick, located more than 10cm deep beneath the cave surface.

The cultural floor has a rather soft texture, formed by clay in a dark brown stone cave, mixed with mollusc shells of rivers, streams and archaeological relics. Through the stratigraphic section shows that relics have 2 layers of culture developed directly on each other, there is no separation layer.

Early culture class, located below 1 meter thick, contains many rough working tools such as tool for cutting dams, cutting tools, picks with pointed heads and some raw stone. All of them are crafted from river pebbles, using rudimentary techniques.

This type of tool in this class featured a Hoa Binh cultural tool such as a disc tool, a short ax tool, an oval tool. A number of grinding axes limited to the blade were also found.

The ax honed for about 4000 years

In the late culture class of nearly 1 meter (above), belonging to the new post-stone culture class in addition to the chiseled stone tools, the shoulder-grinding, fully-polished ax was found, especially pottery found. The original thick crude is hand-molded, the heating is low, outside the rope decoration. It was also the first time that primitive people in Tham Vai knew how to use pottery.

In cultural classes, a large amount of animal bones and mollusks of rivers and streams such as snails, clams, mussels, large shells and shells are found. That is the food remnant of prehistoric people left behind.

It is noteworthy to have found a mark of fire and cuts on the bone sections, indicating that the primitive man divided the beasts into many parts and baked them on fire.

The remaining traces show that hunting and gathering occupy a particularly important position in the search for food sources of primitive people here. The presence of many raw pebbles and stripped stone and fragments here demonstrates the process of processing tools in place.

Through the discovery of relics (royal tablets) in the cultural floor is a symbol of beauty, earthenware used to decorate beauty for people. Thus, Tham Vai people know how to beautify themselves and beautify the community by decorating their bodies.

Based on the overall study of relics, into the stratigraphic sedimentary structure, archaeologists believe that Tham Vai is a relic of many generations of primitive inhabitants. The earliest resident class of the late Hoa Binh cultural resident, dating back to about 8,000 years ago, the late residence of the new post-stone period dates to about 4,000 years ago.