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Product Description
Dating from 1000 BC to 100 AD, the Dong Son culture is believed to be Asia's first civilization for ancient bronze casting. This intact, beautiful and complete ancient bronze hollow cuff bangle bracelet comes from the Dong Son culture of ancient Southeast Asia. It features elaborate outer designs with two decorative terminals that come close together. An open outer edge runs the full circumference of the bangle. Its smaller size meant it was for a very petite woman or a child of a high noble or wealth class family. Rich and colorful ancient encrustations compliment the exceptional preservation.
Requiring great skill in their crafting, these ancient Dong Son bronzes demonstrate a highly developed and artistically talented society that once thrived in ancient Southeast Asia. Objects like these were reserved for wealthy and noble class citizens of this culture.
HISTORY
The Dong Son culture (named for Đông Sơn, a village in Vietnam) was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Vietnam centered at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam from 1000 BC until the first century AD. It was the last great culture of Văn Lang and continued well into the period of the Âu Lạc state. Its influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, including Maritime Southeast Asia, from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.
The Dong Son people, who are also known as Lạc or Lạc Việt, were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping water buffalo and pigs, fishing and sailing in long dugout canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, which is evidenced by the Dong Son drum found widely throughout northern Vietnam and South China.
The origins of Dong Son culture may be traced back to ancient bronze castings. The traditional theory is based on the assumption that bronze casting in eastern Asia originated in northern China. However, according to archaeological discoveries in Isan, Thailand in the 1970s, the casting of bronze began in Southeast Asia first. The Dong Son bronze industry has a local origin, equivalent in timing to the Gò Mun culture, 700-500 BC. This includes bronze axes, spearheads and knives. This was followed by daggers, swords, drums, and situla from 500-0 BC. Finally, Chinese seals, coins, mirrors and halberds appear in the first century AD.
