Viet Nam News
By Minh Thu
HA NOI — Domestic and international scientists gathered at a conference in Ha Noi on Thursday to discuss the preservation and continued study of the Thang Long Royal Citadel in Ha Noi.
The conference also involved discussions of possible methods for promoting the site.
Nguyen Thi Yen, an expert from the Thang Long – Ha Noi Heritage Conservation Centre said heritage education was widely disregarded outside of schools in Viet Nam until the late 2000s, when some national sites were recognised on the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) World Heritage List.
“Museums and heritage sites help promote cultural knowledge and encourage lifelong learning,” she said.
“The centre is aware of the importance of heritage education to the public, especially to young people, and has developed several cultural programs for students at all different levels.”
With old approaches to heritage education considered outdated and ineffective, the centre is exploring new strategies.
“By creating an exciting programme that involves learning while playing, the centre helps children become active explorers of their national history,” she said.
To be effective, these programmes attempt to engage students’ ability to observe, collect and present their knowledge. As a result, they have increased the participation of students as well as teachers and parents.
Tong Trung Tin, chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Archaeological Science, said archaeologists and experts from the centre and the Institute of Archaeology carried out excavations between 2011 and 2017 on an area of well over 5,000sq.m.
“In 2010, when it inscribed the Thang Long Royal Citadel on the World Heritage List, UNESCO recommended we increase archaeological research in the central sector of the site. This is the most important part of the structure, and yet there was little archaeological understanding of it,” Tin said.
“The archaeologists discovered a stratum about four metres thick featuring distinct layers spanning from the pre-Thang Long period (Ly, Tran and Le dynasties) to the Thang Long – Ha Noi period, a time period of thousands of years.”
“Among the remains of the structures are thousands of clay, ceramic, metal and wood artefacts which could improve our understanding of royal life during those periods,” he added.
Professor Ueno Kunikawa from the Nara Women’s University in Japan analysed some areas that were uncovered in earlier excavations at the citadel. He said trying to determine the relative age of the different layers uncovered in the excavation is difficult but revealing.
Kunikawa also said that various projects are ongoing at the site.
“The excavations proved some of our suppositions but, as always, they also raised new questions,” he said. “That’s why further research is necessary.”
Experts from universities and research institutes in China, Japan and Viet Nam participated in the excavations. — VNS