Strange story surrounding an ancient burial area

Excavation of the tomb of Go Que reveals many strange things about Sa Huynh culture: In addition to jars, they buried the dead in earthen graves.

Archaeologists are excavating (Photo: CAND)

The famous and quite familiar Sa Huynh culture was discovered nearly 100 years ago. But with recent excavations, there are quite a few new artifacts and discoveries. Some new findings have just been "revealed" when excavating Go Que burial area earlier this year.

The first strange thing is the discovery of this grave . If there is no site clearance for building a shipyard in Dung Quat industrial zone, relatives in Son Tra fishing village, Binh Dong commune, Binh Son district, Quang Ngai province cannot expect that the village I have an ancient relic more than 2,000 years.

This grave is nestled in a mound, from the top of the mound to the burial burial depths of up to 4 meters, not a civil construction project can reach this depth.

Normally, only burial graves are about 50 cm. So why did the Sa Huynh people here lose their deep excavations to bury the dead? The answer is only available when the excavation site ends and the original landscape is restored. So, at the beginning, the mound here is not that high.

Ancient people also buried in depths like other places. But after more than 2,000 years, a large mound buried deep in the grave. So this is . wind. The burial area is a strong wind-blown place from the bay, the sandy beaches seem to be traveling all over a wide area, until now, they are completely covered in the old grave.

The second strange story is in the way of burial of the ancients. From nearly a century of discovering and studying Sa Huynh culture, scientists still conceived the Sa Huynh people associated with the burial in the grave. There may be different opinions on how to use jars.

A jar of graves (Photo: CAND)

For example, burying the body and putting it in the jar and then covering it up, there is also the idea that it is incinerated and then put the ashes in the jar (cremated form). There are scholars who go even further when the hypothesis is that there are no corpses in the jar but just a symbolic way of burying. Because the Sa Huynh people associated with the sea, the livelihood also moved along the coastal currents, when they died they also sent the body back to the sea, only when they came ashore did they bury ceramic jars and burial items the sand act as a move to commemorate the deceased .

Although many opinions are debated, it seems to be unified at one point: the pottery jars are associated with the burial custom of Sa Huynh people as a criterion. Even some places, such as the Sa Huynh estuary, Duc Pho district, Quang Ngai, when discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, were glazed with pottery jars so that French archaeologist H.Parmentier had no words to call. apart from 'Sa Huynh grave site'.

But with recent documents it is not so, but typically in the grave of Go Que. In addition to jars, they buried the dead in land points. Laying dead people and smashing pottery, even smashing whole pieces of jars to spread around the body. The grave and grave ratio here are 13 graves compared to 18 graves showing that the ancients had two forms of burial, the same grave furniture, the same pieces of pottery.

Not so many Sa Huynh graves have both such burial methods. It also contributes to deny the hypothesis of the Sa Huynh people leaving dead bodies in the sea. In fact, they buried their loved ones in the jar (recent scientific experiment shows that ceramic jars can get rid of people with the condition that they have to minimize the shape of the shape as a coiled shape in the womb) and bury the person laying (Tomb length as well as the ceramic border contours are suitable for the height of the adult).

The third strange story is in burial clothes at the grave of Go Que. Archaeologists were surprised to see a series of bronze pieces of Dong Son culture here, even feeling like they were unearthing a relic of the real Dong Son culture, without being mixed in. These include: 6 rectangular copper axes with geometric patterns, axes with weight-bearing axes with fish-shaped throat, sugarcane-shaped spear blades, T-shaped dagger with hand-shaped shields, spiral-shaped chest shields .

This proves that, from then on, the two ethnic groups of Viet and Cham people have exchanged and exchanged goods. Previously, with the documents available, French archaeologist, Mrs. M.Colani said that Dong Son bronzework was only exchanged to Cuong Ha and Co Giang (Quang Binh). Now, Dong Son bronze furniture has reached farther and farther out to the north of Quang Ngai, the center of Sa Huynh culture.

The fourth strange story: for the first time, archaeologists found a unique artifact. It was a sword with an iron blade, but it was made of bronze. Artifacts made of both types of metal are rarely discovered in our country and are considered to be a 'synchronic iron'. The sword is crafted with great sophistication, especially in the brass section, which consists of many tubes and rounds of the wood core inside.

Prof. Trinh Sinh