Uncover the secret of ancient temple temples in Cat Tien

The Cham towers, the Phu Nam temples and Cat Tien relics, all exist or reveal through archeology, still leave a long-standing question: Where does the construction material come from, or assume that people old bricked up and burned the whole tower?

Over the past few days, discovering in Cat Tien area has clarified these questions.

A vast field of dozens of samples, with an arc of bowl-shaped mountains in the form of a hugging field, not far from the Dong Nai river with the ruined Cat Tien relic is located right on the bank. In the middle of the field, in the territory of Tu Nghia commune, Cat Tien district, Lam Dong, during the two weeks of excavation, from July 15 (and will last until August 20 to hope for another discovery), the surveyors She has found underground four brick kilns separated from each other. This is the vestige of ancient brick kilns, about 12-16 centuries ago.

The unprecedented brick kilns on this Vietnamese territory look very rudimentary with a length of 21m and 6m across the block. There were black burnt tiles lined with red bricks, charcoal, and furnace structure with fire bridges (to fire bricks) and brick bridges (to make bricks burn). All have a wind direction to the furnace from the south.

Archaeological delegation (including the Ho Chi Minh City Research Center of Archeology under the Southern Institute of Social Sciences and Lam Dong Museum) carried bricks to compare and determine the types of bricks.

'Undoubtedly, these mysterious kilns buried underground are the place to produce bricks for the great construction of Cat Tien relic, about 1 to 1.5 km away , ' said the researcher. Bui Chi Hoang, a deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Archaeological Research Center, who put the first archaeological excavations at Cat Tien in 1985, said.

According to Dr. Hoang, the construction of brick kilns adjacent to the big stream flowing through is to facilitate the transportation of bricks to the Dong Nai River to bring to the construction site, and choose the wide field above to have a drying yard. in the brick production process

For a long time, the dating of Cat Tien relic still has no uniformity. There are experts who say that since the 4th century, some people say the 7th and 8th centuries, there are also people who give them 8 to 11

In completing the dossier that the Department of Heritage - Ministry of Culture and Information is making to submit to UNESCO for recognition of Cat Tien relics as a world cultural heritage, the determination of the date of birth is also a requirement.

Mr. Hoang said that the coal samples in the ' center ' of this brick production will make it easier to date, by C14 method. In addition, from the ancient brick kilns will open the ability to recognize the characteristics of residence, residents, crafts . in Cat Tien in the past, especially the ability to identify the owner of this Hindu monument .

After receiving the above information, the Lam Dong provincial government immediately agreed to build a shelter to protect the ancient brick kilns.