The Dong Son culture, centered on the Red River delta south of Hanoi in north Vietnam, lasted from 600BC - 100AD. It was a period when complicated bronzes were made and traded throughout Island Southeast Asia, even to islands off the south coast of Papua New Guinea!
As they didn't leave any written records, not much is known about the Dong Son peoples, except that they were agriculturists, some of whom were able to organise themselves into bronze-making workshops that produced aesthetically-pleasing bronzes of great complexity (including drums, oil-lamps, axe-heads...etc). Most Dong Son bronzes were found in burials, where they probably served as grave-goods to accompany the deceased to the afterlife.
Danny Tan, Assistant Curator, Asian Civilisations Museums, 51 Armenian St, Singapore
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