Dong Vong archaeological site (Co Loa commune)
Dong Vong archaeological site is located to the South East of Co Loa citadel, on a high strip along Hoang Giang River. It has an estimated area of 10,000m2.
Around the site, there are several other archaeological sites. Next to the South West is Bai Men archaeological site and Cau Vuc copper arrow storage. Dong Vong site is 1.5 km to the North East far from Tien Hoi site, 1 km far from Duong May site, and 4 km to the South West far from Dinh Trang site.
Dong Vong archaeological site, explored in 1965 by Faculty of History, Hanoi General University, has been under many excavations and appears to be rather consistent in the stratigraphy.
The first excavation was conducted on 1969, on the area of 100 m2, the second was in 1970 on the area of 142,16m2, the third was in early 1997, area of 283m2, the fourth was in 1997 and the fifth was in 2002, total area under excavation is calculated around 900 m2. The objects collected during 5 excavations on Dong Vong are very plentiful, including:
Stone items: 1070 objects, of which there are 845 specimen such as axes, chisels, net lead, plumb-line, planer blades, scrapers, jewelries such as bracelets, earrings, rings, cores, hoops with sections of rectangular shape, triangle shape, shape of D, L letters, 2 stone arrows, and 143 other stone objects such as mounts, jaw stone piece, chocking piece, axe in the rectangular shape which have been in the process of manipulation, grater).
Grater with concave groove: Excavated in: Dong Vong – Den Thuong- Co Loa-Dong Anh – Hanoi. Date back to: Between the 2nd-1st century B.C and the 1st-2nd century A.D
Pottery: 420 whole objects including: ball, lead, ceramic sculptures, ceramic fork, molds, lid and 64,49 broken pieces of various kinds.
In the place, it has been found many copper slag pieces, but not copper objects. Based on the characteristics of culture layer and relic development, it is possible to determine that Dong Vong is the archaeological site of Phung Nguyen culture, date back to 3700 – 4000 years ago. This site shares many similar features to Go Bong site, Ren commune (Phu Tho).
