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Meet the flintstones: Some stone tools unearthed at six excavation sites at the Son La hydro-electric reservoir construction site. The objects have been turned over to the Dien Bien Museum. — File Photo |
DIEN BIEN — More than 28,400 artefacts unearthed at six excavation sites in the Son La Hydro-electricity Plant reservoir construction site have been handed over to the Dien Bien Museum.
The objects, unearthed by Viet Nam Archaeology Institute graduates, have been identified as being from the Palaeolithic era (around 20,000 years ago) to Neolithic (3,000-4,000 years ago). They were found at Huoi So, Tua Thang communes and Muong Lay town of Dien Bien District.
They include simple tools like stone pestles, mortars, and ceramic objects.
Institute Professor Nguyen Khac Su said the objects were from tribes living in connected groups along the Da River, judging from the groups of objects.
From an initial social network, the so-called Son Vi culture was formed in the north of Viet Nam, he said. Son Vi culture (20,000-12,000BC) is the name given to the Upper Palaeolithic tradition of highland Viet Nam.
(The Upper or late Palaeolithic era is the latest of the three periods of the Palaeolithic era, about 40,000 to 14,000 years ago, when modern human beings first appeared).
Su said further study of the relics would identify special cultural features of the region as well as the process of developing prehistoric cultures in the north of Viet Nam in the context of other civilisations in Viet Nam, south China and Southeast Asia.
The project of excavating and moving objects from excavation sites in the Son La Hydroelectricity Plant's reservoir has been implemented in the north-western provinces of Dien Bien, Son La and Lai Chau. Dien Bien was the first to be completed. — VNS