VIETNAM -- 6,000 YEAR OLD TOMBS UNEARTHED

Six tombs built 6,000 years have just been excavated in Bac Kan Province in Northeast Vietnam, about 180 kilometers north of Hanoi. Local archaeologists used the absolute dating method on snail shells found inside the tomb to determine that the remains dated back to more than 6,000 years ago.

The items, of which four have been exposed to the open air, were found together with broken skeletons with missing skulls and teeth, said excavation team leader Professor Trinh Nang Chung of the Hanoi-based Institute of Archaeology. As the team didn't find any trace of human skulls and teeth at the site raised the hypothesis among the scientists that the corpses were victim to 'headhunting' practices in which the early peoples of Southeast Asia would steal skulls to get the power from the dead.

Two skeletons among the six were buried with cutting tools made of stone as burial belongings. The tombs were made of stones. According to researchers and scientists, the first residents of the cave were of the Hoa Binh - Bac Son culture (4,000 BCE - 5,000 BCE), whereas the last ones had lived there during the early Iron Age.

Aside from the cutting tools, hundreds of artifacts made of ceramic and stone, including jewelry, tools, ochre (a soil of yellow color, mixed with water to decorate the bodies of both the dead and the living) that represent the two cultures have been unearthed at the site.

Edited from Thanh Nien News (20 December 2013)
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