Three ancient graves hidden inside a limestone cave in northern Vietnam are offering remarkable clues to how prehistoric people lived and buried their dead.
Deep inside Cuc Phuong’s primeval forest in northern Vietnam, archaeologists uncovered three ancient graves containing fossilized human skeletons, offering rare clues to how prehistoric communities lived - and buried their dead - thousands of years ago.
Nguoi Xua Cave lies halfway up a limestone mountain in Cuc Phuong National Park, where evidence indicates prehistoric people lived for an extended period.
Surrounded by the dense forests of Cuc Phuong in Ninh Binh Province, a museum holds tens of thousands of specimens documenting the extraordinary diversity of the national park’s flora and fauna.
Among them is something far older and more haunting: the remains of a human who lived more than 7,500 years ago.
The fossilized skeleton, preserved in a tightly flexed position with the knees drawn toward the body, was discovered alongside stone tools and other archaeological material. Together, the finds provide important evidence of the daily life and customs of prehistoric communities that once inhabited this part of Vietnam.
The remains came from Nguoi Xua Cave - literally “Ancient Human Cave” - halfway up a limestone mountain in the primeval forest of Cuc Phuong National Park.
Archaeologists excavating Nguoi Xua Cave discovered three ancient graves containing fossilized human skeletons buried in flexed positions.
The cave entrance is around 10 meters wide and 20 meters high.
Inside, stalactites and stalagmites fill parts of the cavern. When struck, some produce resonant sounds resembling the gongs traditionally associated with the Muong people.
Local Muong communities call the site Hang Dang, or Bat Cave, because of the large number of bats that inhabit it.
But thousands of years before it acquired that name, the cave was home to humans.
Three graves inside a prehistoric home
The remains of a prehistoric person who lived more than 7,500 years ago are preserved and displayed at the Cuc Phuong Museum.
Pham Phu Cuong, an official at Cuc Phuong National Park, said archaeological excavations inside Nguoi Xua Cave uncovered three ancient graves containing three fossilized human skeletons.
All three bodies had been buried in flexed positions.
The cave extends for around 300 meters and is divided into three chambers, with its entrance facing southwest.
The outer chamber is spacious, bright and well ventilated. Prehistoric inhabitants chose this section as their living area.
The middle chamber is narrower, darker and more humid and is now inhabited by bats. The innermost chamber is also dark and damp, but contains striking formations of stalactites and stalagmites.
According to Cuong, Nguoi Xua Cave was excavated in 1966 by the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology in cooperation with Cuc Phuong National Park and German specialists.
The excavation produced an array of artifacts and remains, including stone axes, stone knives, bone points, shells and animal bones.
From the evidence, archaeologists concluded that prehistoric humans had occupied the cave for a considerable period.
The most remarkable discovery, however, lay beneath the cave floor.
Archaeologists uncovered three ancient graves containing relatively well-preserved fossilized human skeletons dating back more than 7,500 years.
The skull of the prehistoric human remains.
The bodies had been buried at depths ranging from 40 centimeters to 1.4 meters.
Each had been placed in a flexed position, surrounded by large stones. The bottoms of the graves were lined with crushed stone and sprinkled with red ochre.
Those details transformed the discovery from a collection of human remains into evidence of something more complex: how prehistoric people understood death.
Clues to ancient beliefs
Documents preserved by Cuc Phuong National Park describe the graves as the first burial structures of their kind discovered at archaeological sites associated with the Hoa Binh culture.
Their construction offers clues to some of the earliest forms of spiritual or religious belief among the region’s prehistoric inhabitants.
Archaeologists have also interpreted the position of the skeletons as evidence that the bodies may have been bound before burial.
According to the archaeological interpretation cited in Cuc Phuong’s records, binding the dead may have reflected a belief that the deceased could return as spirits and harm the living.
The graves therefore preserve more than bones.
The stones arranged around the bodies, the red ochre, the flexed burial position and the possible binding of the dead provide glimpses into the rituals and fears of people who inhabited northern Vietnam thousands of years before written history.
Most parts of the prehistoric skeleton remain intact.
The prehistoric skeleton was discovered during archaeological excavations at Nguoi Xua Cave in 1966.
The fossilized human bones remain relatively well preserved.
Archaeologists discovered stone axes, stone knives, bone points, shells and animal bones during excavations inside Nguoi Xua Cave.
Of the three sets of human remains excavated from Nguoi Xua Cave, two are now held at the Vietnam Archaeology Museum, while one is preserved and displayed at the Cuc Phuong Museum.
The specimen at Cuc Phuong remains remarkably complete.
Its surviving parts include the skull, ribs and bones of the arms and legs, allowing visitors to stand face to face with physical evidence of a person who lived in the forests of what is now northern Vietnam more than seven millennia ago.
The artifacts recovered alongside the burials add further pieces to the picture.
Stone axes and knives point to the tools people used. Bone points reveal another form of early technology. Shells and animal bones offer evidence of the resources they gathered and consumed.
Together with the graves, they reveal Nguoi Xua Cave not simply as a place where ancient human remains happened to survive, but as a space where prehistoric people lived for generations - finding food, making tools and eventually burying their dead.
More than 7,500 years later, their traces remain embedded in the limestone landscape of Cuc Phuong.
Vietnamnet.vn
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