The Vuon Chuoi Archaeological Site is 12,000 m2 wide, located within the scope of the project to build the 3.5 Ring Road in Hanoi City. After a year of implementing the plan of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports, the Institute of Archaeology completed the field excavation work in early March 2025.
In addition to the new discoveries announced by the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports on December 6, 2024, the archaeological research team continued to make important discoveries, and many documents became known to the archaeological research community for the first time.
In particular, the Phung Nguyen cultural layer contributed to firmly determining that the Vuon Chuoi site consisted of 4 cultural stages, continuously developing from Phung Nguyen to Dong Dau to Go Mun to Dong Son, lasting continuously from 4,000 years ago to the present day.
Through the excavated artifacts, archaeologists believe that in the Phung Nguyen cultural distribution area, there is a possibility that a jade stone crafting area and a ritual practice area were placed next to each other.
In this area, a layer of earth was discovered to create a production surface, a moat used for jade crafting, many pieces of bracelet cores, broken pieces of jade bracelets, and stone axes mixed with many ceramics neatly placed in separate clusters. Charcoal, ash and animal bones also appeared quite a lot.
According to Dr Nguyen Ngoc Quy, from the Institute of Archaeology, who directly directed the excavation, the bamboo and wood workshop area of the Go Mun culture period about 3,000 years ago is the first discovery of this type in the archaeological sites in Northern Vietnam.
The above documents promise to help us have a clearer understanding of the daily life of ancient Vietnamese groups more than 3,000 years ago.
Because the bamboo and wood crafting area was located next to an ancient stream, the shapes of the crafting materials preserved in the muddy environment remain quite intact. Here, house pillars, tools, tools made of bamboo, wood and many pieces of wood chips, tree branches left behind after crafting were discovered.
The above documents promise to help us have a clearer understanding of the daily life of ancient Vietnamese groups more than 3,000 years ago. However, according to Professor, Dr Lam Thi My Dung, from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, post-excavation is extremely important and needs appropriate attention, while the relocation of artifacts needs to have a careful plan with high expertise.
The Hanoi People’s Committee has assigned the Department of Culture and Sports to preside over the work of editing the system of documents on excavated relics and artifacts, avoiding the loss and waste of precious cultural heritage.
The editing task is built and implemented according to the common methods and processes of the traditional archaeology industry, at the same time aiming at specialised fields, gradually clarifying the social space of Vuon Chuoi through historical periods.
The excavation research team also supported the Hoai Duc District People’s Committee to build and update the research results of archaeological vestiges in the west of the Vuon Chuoi site in the Vuon Chuoi Relic Profile to submit to the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports and relevant agencies to rank the relic according to the Law on Cultural Heritage.
Previously, the Institute of Archaeology and related units had prepared a dossier to submit to the relevant departments, agencies and branches to recognise 6,000 m2 east of the Vuon Chuoi Relic Site as a relic, but so far it has only been recorded in the list of inventoried relics.
On November 19, 2024, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued Document No.5125/BVHTTDLDSVH, and on November 29, 2024, the Office of the Hanoi People’s Committee issued Document No. 14322/VP-KGVX on the protection of the Vuon Chuoi archaeological site, in which it was agreed that it is necessary to “urgently have a plan to protect the Vuon Chuoi archaeological site (eastern area) and proceed to develop a dossier to rank the relic to protect and promote its value according to the provisions of the law on cultural heritage and other relevant regulations.”
According to Dr Pham Quoc Quan, former Director of the National Museum of History, only when it is classified as a relic can the 6,000 m2 east of the Vuon Chuoi archaeological site be protected by a legal corridor and a cultural heritage park be built.
The excavation and relocation of the 6,000 m2 west to clear the ground and build the 3.5 beltway has been completed. Hopefully, in the near future, the 6,000 m2 east of the Vuon Chuoi archaeological site will soon be recognised as an archaeological relic, creating a protection corridor and a basis for preserving and promoting long-term value.
