VietNamNet Bridge – A stone piece resembling antique earring samples belonging to the ancient Vietnamese Sa Huynh civilisation has been found in the central province of Thua Thien- Hue.

Saola figure. — Photo globalwildlife.org

Ngo Hoang Long, an official in the province’s Vinh Hien Commune, discovered the piece accidentally during a site trip last week at the locality.

The stone is 6cm long from one side and 5cm from the other. It is shaped in the form of an animal head, having horns, and eyes, mouth and tongue carved into it at both ends. In the middle, the piece has a hook to serve as an earring.

Long, who is a history graduate, was able to recognise the stone at first sight.

Tran Van Dung, a researcher working at the province’s Department of Culture and Sports, also Long’s former classmate, said the stone completely resembled the antiques of the Sa Huynh era.

Similar Sa Huynh antiques were found in Dai Loc, Nui Thanh and Nam Giang districts in the adjacent Quang Nam Province. A number of these stone earrings were discovered in Giong Ca Vo jar burial site in Can Gio Islet in HCM City.

In Giong Ca Vo site, archeologists found the stones still dangling from skulls, thus leading them to believe the stones were used as earrings. The earrings were available in different materials and colours.

The sizes of the horns and hooks on the earrings were different. Archeologists also believed that the earrings have a connection with saola (Vu Quang ox/Asian bicorn), which is endemic to the central region of Viet Nam.

They also suspected that the earrings might have been used by men due to its manly look.

Sa Huynh is a prehistoric Iron Age civilisation that flourished in the period from 1000 BC to AD 200 in the land stretch from Quang Binh to southern central localities and Central Highlands. It attracted attention since 1909 when a French customs officer found a cemetery of jar burials in a site near Sa Huynh in Quang Ngai Province. In the Iron Age, Sa Huynh, together with Dong Son in the northern delta and Oc Eo in the south, made a triangle of culture in the country.

Thua Thien-Hue is among the localities where archeologists have found Sa Huynh items.

The real Sa Huynh earring. — Photo baoquangnam.vn The stone piece found in Hue. — Photo provided by Ngo Hoang Long

VNS