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An ancient canoe unearthed in northern Vietnam by a team led by ANU researchers has yielded some surprising treasures, and is set to reveal much about life in the Red River delta in ancient times.
Used as a coffin and dating back to 100BC, it is one of the oldest log canoes ever found in South-East Asia — if not the oldest, according to Professor Peter Bellwood, the Head of Archaeology and Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts.
A body covered by a well-preserved shroud, grass matting, pottery and beads were found in the 2.3 metre long canoe, which was recovered from a canal near the village of Dong Xa, about 50 kilometres southeast of Hanoi.
It is these crafted items that are particularly valued by ANU prehistoric textiles specialist Dr Judith Cameron, from the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, who spearheaded the project after learning of ancient coffins discovered in the same area.
“Prehistoric textiles only survive at exceptional sites — in the desert or at waterlogged sites, like this one where it’s anaerobic (there is no oxygen) and everything is beautifully preserved,“ Dr Cameron says.
“We found a significant amount of cloth with this body in the canoe and it is set to reveal a lot about the Dong Son people who lived at this site at the time this person was buried.”
Initially, the shroud will be analysed by Dr Cameron to determine what fibres were used in its production. The shroud was also dyed, and samples will be sent to a laboratory in Brussels that specialises in the analysis of prehistoric textile dyes.
But the shroud will provide Dr Cameron with other, more absorbing information, particularly in an area she has a special interest — the role of women.
“I hope it will provide an insight into the role of Dong Son women, one apart from the obsession history has with metals and men.
Perishable
“Cloth production is extremely time consuming and the analysis of the shroud will tell us a great deal about Dong Son economic systems. Because cloth is so perishable and does not always survive, we have a distorted pictures of women’s economic role in the prehistoric period.
“We know women were producing cloth because ancient Dong Son cemeteries have shown that women were buried with their spindle whorls and looms.
“Underneath the shroud it’s possible the person is wearing clothing and clothing is significant — it tells us about ethnic identity, gender and social status as well as the role of clothing in mortuary rituals.”
"I hope it will provide an insight into the role of Dong Son women, one apart from the obsession history has with metals and men"
Dr Cameron
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The burial canoe, now being preserved at the Hung Yen Provincial Museum, will also give the research team an insight into the burial practices of this period.
Funded by an Australian Research Council linkage grant, Dr Cameron assembled a team that brought together a range of specialist skills vital to the success of the project. Her colleagues included archaeologist Professor Bellwood and conservators from the National Museum of Australia.
“The project is divided into three distinct components: excavation, analysis and conservation and it is tremendous that the conservation began during the excavation process.”
The conservators were crucial to the survival of the cloth once exposed to the heat and humidity of Vietnam.
“There are a few reasons why a significant piece of cloth from South East Asia from this period has never been found — one of the main ones is the tropical climate,” Dr Cameron says.
“I knew if we were to find something, we needed to have the specialised skills of the conservators there, otherwise the cloth would just fall apart in our hands and the opportunity would be lost.”
Dr Cameron had been alerted to the artefact potential of the site by Vietnamese archaeologists who had found a coffin from the same period nearby. This followed the discovery of a large, stylised bronze drum from around 100BC by a Dong Xa villager.
Radar
The team used a ground-penetrating radar system to try and locate more coffins when they went to Vietnam in December, but it was not until a Vietnamese archaeologist asked for the canal to be temporarily drained that the canoe was found.
It was floated whole, complete with body and shroud, down the canal to the village on a raft made of banana trunks the next day.
“Although wooden coffins are common at Dong Son sites, boat-shaped coffins are rarer, although they have been recorded by Vietnamese archaeologists before, so although it was a bit of a surprise, it was not a first.”
Although it was different from the norm, the burial of the person in the canoe did not necessarily imply a special social rank or standing. Items found with the body, and its preparation for burial, were not unlike other burials in the area.
An extra benefit of the project is the knowledge transfer the conservators will pass on to museum and archaeological staff in Vietnam both through the practical aspect of the project and via a workshop on basic cloth conservation techniques later this year by National Museum of Australia staff in Hanoi.
Professor Bellwood will return to the site near Dong Xa in the near future to excavate an ancient ‘habitation’ site, which was progressively silted over as the ancient Red River delta dried up (in 100BC, Dong Xa would have been very close to the South China Sea coastline). He is particularly interested in finding out about the impact of imperialist China on Dong Son culture.
“The boat is quite significant because it was constructed using a method we know was used in China 5,000 years ago,” Professor Bellwood says.
“It’s all put together with little wooden dowels — they put holes in the wood and the planks end to end, put little rectangular pieces of wood through the holes, pushed them together and put a dowel through. It’s all done with wood — no iron — so it is interesting in that respect as well.”
Any cloth-making tools found as this ancient village is excavated will be used by Dr Cameron to draw parallels to practices still used in the region.
“I hope this all will contribute to our expanding knowledge of mortuary practises of the Dong Son and more specifically, the role of women and their cloth in the Dong Son culture,” she says.
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