Đông Sơn culture

The Dong Son culture, Dongsonian culture, or the Lạc Việt culture was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Southeast Asia and China. It was prominent specifically in the Southeast Asian countries of Vietnam, Malaysia, and Laos, and the Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Fujian from 1000 BC until the first century AD. Vietnamese historians attribute the culture to the states of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc and its influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, including Maritime Southeast Asia, from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.
The Đông Sơn people were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping water buffalos and pigs, fishing and sailing in long dugout canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, which is evidenced by the Dong Son drum found widely throughout northern Vietnam and Guangxi in China.
To the south of the Đông Sơn culture was the Sa Huỳnh culture of the proto-Chams.

Identity

The Dongsonians spoke either Austroasiatic or Northern Tai languages; or were Austroasiatic-speakers with significant contact and admixture with Tai-speakers.
Archaeogenetics have demonstrated that before the Đông Sơn period, the Red River Delta's inhabitants were predominantly Austroasiatic. Genetic data from Vietnam's Phùng Nguyên culture's Mán Bạc burial site demonstrated close proximity to modern Austroasiatic speakers such as the Khmer and Mlabri; meanwhile, "mixed genetics" from Đông Sơn culture's Núi Nấp site showed affinity to "Dai from China, Tai-Kadai speakers from Thailand, and Austroasiatic speakers from Vietnam, including the Kinh". Núi Nấp populations also have affinities with the Dushan and Baojianshan from Southern China and that they can be modeled as a mixture of Dushan-related and northern East Asian-related ancestry. A 2010 craniometric study argued that the cranial features, including narrow and long faces, relatively flat glabellas and nasal roots, and round orbits, are due to shared genetic ancestry with their neighbors in the northern peripheral areas of Vietnam, including Southern China.
Ferlus showed that the inventions of pestle, oar, and a pan to cook sticky rice, which is the main characteristic of the Đông Sơn culture, correspond to the creation of new lexicons for these inventions in Northern Vietic and Central Vietic. The new vocabularies to denote these inventions were proven to be derivatives from original verbs rather than borrowed lexical items. The current distribution of Northern Vietic also correspond to the area of Đông Sơn culture. Thus, Ferlus conclude that the Dongsonian culture was of Vietic origin and they were the direct ancestors of modern Vietnamese people.
Some historians such as Keith W. Taylor, Nguyen Phuong, and John D. Phan believe there is no actual evidence that the Đông Sơn culture or figures were Vietnamese people or ancestors of the Vietnamese. Phan notes that the Đông Sơn culture could be found in places such as Malaysia and Fujian, China. Some studies show the highest affinities between modern Vietnamese populations and Hon Hai Co Tien and Kinabatagan populations, except for Vietnamese Austronesian populations. However, Hoabinhian affinities are not found in Kinabatagan populations compared to Hon Hai Co Tien populations.
The disappearance of material evidence of the Đông Sơn culture such as the Đông Sơn drums in Vietnam dates to the Trưng sisters' defeat and the appearance of Han material culture, suggesting that the Trưng sisters represented a failed indigenous uprising. According to Michael Churchman, more than 120 Han brick tombs in the Red River region suggest growing Chinese migration into the area or significant cultural influence on the locals by these immigrants. The earliest Sino-Vietnamese loanwords also date from around this time.

Origins

The origins of Đông Sơn culture may be traced back to ancient bronze castings. Scholars traditionally traced the origins of bronze-casting technology to China but during the 1970s archaeological discoveries in Isan, Thailand found that the casting of bronze either began in Southeast Asia first then spread into China, or that it developed the practise independently from China. The Đông Sơn bronze industry therefore has a local origin in Southeast Asia rather than being introduced by migrations out of China. The Gò Mun culture gave rise to the Đông Sơn culture; the Đông Sơn was the culmination of the Bronze Age and the opening stage of the Iron Age.
The bronze drums were used for war, "the chief summons the warriors of the tribe by beating the drum", when mourning, and during feasts. "The scenes cast onto the drums would inform us that the Dong Son leaders had access to bronze founders of remarkable skill." Lost-wax casting was based on Chinese founders, but the scenes are local, including drummers and other musicians, warriors, rice processing, birds, deer, war vessels, and geometric designs.
The bronze drums were made in significant proportions in northern Vietnam, Laos and parts of Yunnan. The Đông Sơn bronze drums exhibit "remarkable skill". The Cổ Loa drum weighs and would have required the smelting of between of copper ore.
Displays of the Đông Sơn drum surface can be seen in some of Vietnam's cultural institutions.
Some of Đông Sơn bronze daggers closely resemble Scytho-Siberian styles.