Discovered vestiges of Hoa Lu ancient citadel while digging house foundation

The layer of red bricks used to build Hoa Lu citadel was recently discovered in Tan Hoa village.

In mid-December, Mr. Nguyen Tu Quy in Tan Hoa village, Truong Yen commune, Hoa Lu district (Ninh Binh), dug the foundation to build a house for his second son on the family's residential land plot of more than 100 square meters. During the construction, the group of workers accidentally dislodged a section of earthen embankment mixed with red bricks suspected to be the ancient Hoa Lu citadel wall.

The local government and the cultural sector then asked the family to stop construction so that the Institute of Archaeology could conduct an archaeological excavation. Over the past week, researchers have dug three excavation pits and discovered five layers of the wall structure.

That is the layer of wall foot reinforcement (at a depth of 3.46 m) made of ironwood piled with gray clay on top to create the foot; a layer of shredded tree branches to prevent subsidence and slipping; next are layers of clay and brick walls arranged quite standardly... The brick wall combined with wooden piles and layers of filled soil form a solid whole.

Relics found in the excavation pits are mainly broken bricks. The bricks here are of two groups: grey bricks, some of which have the words "Giang Tay army" or "Giang Tay specialist", dating from the 8th-9th century. The second type of bricks are red bricks, some of which have the words "Dai Viet national army and city specialist" printed on them, which are the type of bricks used to build the capital at that time, and also date from around the 10th century.

On December 31, Ms. Vu Thanh Lich, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ninh Binh province, said that up to now, the Hoa Lu citadel area has been excavated and surveyed three times. The results of this excavation continue to confirm the techniques of building the Hoa Lu citadel in the 10th century.

Lim wood piles are driven into the ground nearly 4 m deep.

From the results of field research, archaeologists have a common opinion that the artificial walls in Hoa Lu were all built on low-lying, swampy ground, so they all used the technique of spreading wooden bars combined with piles to prevent landslides.

The citadel walls were built in the shape of a fish or a trapezoid, with the outer roof often being steeper than the inner one. This technique of building a citadel was also discovered in La Thanh, Thang Long (Hanoi) and is considered to be quite similar to the technique of building and creating the bones for the citadel walls by the Cham people at the Tra Kieu citadel site (Quang Nam).

"The excavation results have provided new documents that contribute to clarifying the citadel wall and the process of building the Hoa Lu citadel wall, and also contribute to consolidating more complete data about the Hoa Lu capital under the Dinh - Tien Le dynasties in the 10th century," said Ms. Lich.

A piece of brick with Chinese characters found at the excavation site.

According to Ms. Lich, due to the hasty excavation and lack of time, many important questions about Hoa Lu citadel walls remain unanswered. For example, whether the northeastern citadel wall and other artificial walls were used only once, and what their actual role was in the capital.

Therefore, scientists proposed that Ninh Binh province continue to develop a project and action program to conduct further research on the scale, techniques, distribution space and construction methods of the Hoa Lu ancient capital. These studies will provide additional important documents, helping to recreate the appearance of the ramparts and the road leading to the Hoa Lu capital during the Dinh - Tien Le dynasties.

Hoa Lu district authorities and Ninh Binh province authorities are considering the possibility of relocating 12 households living near the foot of Cot Co mountain, where traces of Hoa Lu citadel walls were discovered, to develop a conservation plan.

Some ceramic pieces were also found by archaeologists at the excavation site.

Hoa Lu was the first capital of Vietnam under feudalism, existing during the period 968-1010 with three consecutive dynasties: Dinh, Tien Le and Ly, before King Ly Cong Uan moved the capital to Thang Long.

The following dynasties of Ly, Tran, Le, Nguyen, although no longer establishing the capital in Hoa Lu, still renovated and built many architectural works here such as temples, pagodas, mausoleums...

The location where the traces of the citadel wall were recently discovered is about 1.5 km from the current center of Hoa Lu Ancient Capital.

TB (according to VnExpress)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/phat-hien-dau-tich-thanh-co-hoa-lu-khi-dao-mong-nha-401925.html