Hanoi City’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has proposed that the city government preserve Vuon Chuoi’s archeological relics where the first inhabitants are believed to have settled down there in the capital. 

To Van Dong, director of the department, last week signed a document for submission to the city government, saying that the archeological site in Kim Chung Commune in Hoai Duc District with vestiges dating back to 3,500 years ago is on the brink of disappearance and proposes keeping the archeological area intact. 

Earlier, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Huy, former director of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, also raised his voice to this effect, asking the city government to take urgent measures to protect the threatened archeological site.

Huy wrote a letter sent to secretary of Hanoi’s Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai and city chairman Nguyen Duc Chung in an effort to call for the conservation of the site, saying that Vuon Chuoi was first discovered in 1969 by the Vietnam Archaeological Institute and has to date undergone eight excavations.

During the course of excavations, archeologists have discovered 29 prehistoric tombs, nearly 150,000 pieces of pottery, 50 pottery artifacts, over 200 bronze artifacts, 11 iron artifacts, and 1,000 wooden artifacts, Tuoi Tre newspaper reports.

Despite the ups and downs of the history, the archeological site has still preserved age-old artifacts attached to diverse cultural periods, such as the Dong Dau culture (1,500-1,000 BC), Go Mun (1,000-600 BC) and Dong Son (700 BC-100). 

Huy highlighted the importance of Vuon Chuoi as the site is considered as the first site of human settlement of ancient Vietnamese people and serves as obvious evidence about the native origin of the Vietnamese in the capital city.

Vuon Chuoi archeological relic plays an important role in the development of Hanoi City in particular and Vietnam in general, Huy affirmed.

Currently, Vietnamese archeologists are calling on the public to join hands for the conservation of the archeological area as the city government had earlier introduced plans to develop infrastructure projects over the site.

SGT