THỪA THIÊN- HUẾ — A stone piece resembling antique earring samples belonging to the ancient Vietnamese Sa Huỳnh civilisation has been found in the central province of Thừa Thiên- Huế.

Ngô Hoàng Long, an official in the province’s Vinh Hiền 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.

The stone piece found in Huế. — Photo provided by Ngô Hoàng Long

Trần Văn Dũng, 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 Huỳnh era.

Similar Sa Huỳnh antiques were found in Đại Lộc, Núi Thành and Nam Giang districts in the adjacent Quảng Nam Province. A number of these stone earrings were discovered in Giồng Cá Vồ jar burial site in Cần Giờ Islet in HCM City.

In Giồng Cá Vồ 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 Việt Nam.

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

Sa Huỳnh is a prehistoric Iron Age civilisation that flourished in the period from 1000 BC to AD 200 in the land stretch from Quảng Bình 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 Huỳnh in Quảng Ngãi Province. In the Iron Age, Sa Huỳnh, together with Đông Sơn in the northern delta and Óc Eo in the south, made a triangle of culture in the country.

Thừa Thiên- Huế is among the localities where archeologists have found Sa Huỳnh items. — VNS