Japanese archaeologist Nishimura Masanari on a field trip in north Viet Nam. He was awarded a posthumous Friendship Medal by the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences yesterday. – Photo news.go.vn

HA NOI (VNS)– Late Japanese archaeologist Nishimura Masanari, who made many contributions to Vietnamese archaeology, was awarded a posthumous Friendship Medal by the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences yesterday.

According to archaeological expert Tong Trung Tin, the medal was recognition for Nishimura's active contributions to Viet Nam's social sciences in general and archaeology and history as well as museums.

Nishimura died in a motorbike accident on Highway 5 from Ha Noi to Hai Phong on his way to an archaeological site in June.

Nishimura, 48, who is known in Viet Nam as Ly Van Sy, was born and grew up in Shimonoseki City in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.

A graduate of Tokyo University's Archaeology Department, he first came to Viet Nam in 1990 for a project in the central province of Nghe An.

In November 1998, Nishimura discovered a section of moulding used to cast bronze drums 2,000 years ago. It is the only one of its kind excavated in the country and helps prove that Viet Nam was the prime source of the drums.

Both his postgraduate and doctorate theses were about Vietnamese archaeology and its ancient civilisations.

Together with his wife Nishino Noriko, Nishimura worked tirelessly for 12 years to build an ancient earthenware museum in Kim Lan Village in Ha Noi's Gia Lam District. – VNS