Deep archaeological excavation in a village of Dak Lak, more than 1,500 strange ancient artifacts were discovered, including 2,000-year-old stone drills.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) has just decided to allow Dak Lak Museum to conduct the third archaeological excavation at Thac Hai site in Ea Sup district, Dak Lak province.

According to Decision No. 1504/QD-BVHTTDL, archaeological excavation will take place from June 22, 2024 to July 30, 2024, on an area of ​​50 square meters.

The archaeological excavation scale includes 2 pits, each pit is 25m2. The excavation leader is Mr. Tran Quang Nam, an officer of Dak Lak Museum.

The Thac Hai archaeological site in village 6, Ia Jloi commune, Ea Sup district, Dak Lak province was discovered in early 2020.

Previously, there were two archaeological excavations at Thac Hai Site. The excavations in March and April 2021 were conducted by the National Museum of History in collaboration with the Dak Lak Museum. Archaeologists collected a large number of relics and artifacts such as stone adzes, pottery, glassware, burials, more than 1,000 stone drills of various types and tens of thousands of small pieces.

The second excavation from November 2021 to May 2022 revealed relics including burial tombs, pottery clusters, black soil pits and burnt soil floors.

Of these, 16 graves had fairly uniform burial customs. Some graves were buried with stone tools such as axes, chisels, grinding tables, and bark pounding tables. Some graves were buried with 42 blue glass beads as burial objects.

Archaeological excavation of artifacts at archaeological sites in Ea Sup district, Dak Lak province.

The artifacts collected include stone, ceramic and glass objects. Stone objects are the main type of artifacts at Thac Hai, the most numerous being drill bits with 1,596 specimens.

Pottery includes vases, pots, jars, urns, bowls... in many sizes. Glassware includes 1,244 beads.

Scientists believe that Thac Hai is a complex site, which is both a residential area, a burial site, and a large-scale stone drill manufacturing workshop.

Excavation results also show that the Thac Hai archaeological site is located in the time frame from about 3,500 BC to about 2,000 years ago, existing for more than 1,000 years, with two different early and late development stages.

The early stage belongs to the late Neolithic period, represented by the drill-bit culture layer, with both pot and earthen tombs, and burial objects mainly consisting of stone and pottery.

The late Iron Age period, with a cultural layer containing glass beads, jar graves buried with glass beads.

Archaeologists believe that Thac Hai may be the site with the thickest cultural layer in the Central Highlands. Archaeological sites in the Central Highlands often have an average cultural layer of 50-70 cm thick, the thickest site in Lung Leng is only about 1 m thick, but at Thac Hai site, even if not counting the second layer (modern times), the cultural layer here is still about 2 m thick.

The research and excavation results at Thac Hai Archaeological Site are one of the new and very important discoveries of Vietnamese archaeology.

With existing documents about cultures or sites of the same period, it can be said that this is the first time in Southeast Asia in general and Vietnam in particular, a large-scale, highly specialized drill bit manufacturing workshop with sophisticated technical skills has been discovered.

Source: https://danviet.vn/dao-sau-khao-co-o-mot-thon-cua-dak-lak-xuat-lo-hon-1500-hien-vat-co-la-la-mui-khoan-da-2000-nam-20240926180604814.htm