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Aussies Find Bronze Age Canoe
The Australian ^ | 1-14-2005

Posted on 01/15/2005 4:44:46 PM PST by blam

Aussies find bronze age canoe

January 14, 2005

AUSTRALIAN archaeologists have unearthed one of the oldest log canoes ever found in South-East Asia.

A team from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra and conservators from the National Museum of Australia excavated a 2.5m section of the boat last month at Dong Xa, about 50 kilometres southeast of the capital Hanoi.

The boat was used for burial and contained the body of an adult.

It would have been about 10m long and was believed to have been used in the Red River delta area around 100BC by a people known as the Dongson, ANU's Peter Bellwood said.

"This was a bronze age culture, the people were quite well known because they manufactured very large bronze drums which often had designs on them, and many of the designs show these boats," Professor Bellwood said.

"We've only found one end of it. The end was chopped off and used for burial.

"It's one of the oldest surviving boats under conservation in South-East Asia."

Project co-ordinator Judith Cameron, a specialist in prehistoric textiles from ANU, said the adult's body was covered with a shroud and surrounded by pottery and a large amount of matting.

"These textiles will reveal a great deal about the material and structural composition of textiles and the role of cloth in burials by the Dongson people more than 2000 years ago," Dr Cameron said.

Samples of the textiles and the bark lid and wood of the coffin are being analysed in Canberra.

The team also excavated the grave of a young child at Dong Xa, and will return to Vietnam in December.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: age; archaeology; aussies; bronze; canoe; find; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history
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1 posted on 01/15/2005 4:44:47 PM PST by blam
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG Ping.


2 posted on 01/15/2005 4:45:26 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

Very interesting! I didn't know that there was a culture in Southeast Asia that practiced burials in boats.

Although, I suppose it probably was a common practice in many cultures throughout history.

Fascinating. I wish I knew more about the subject.

(Ancient burial practices are incredibly interesting I think, they speak volumes about the way in which those cultures viewed death. I recall that an anthropology teacher I had once said that being buried in a boat indicates a belief that death leads to renewal. I might be mistaken though, I took that class many years ago.)


3 posted on 01/15/2005 4:51:56 PM PST by rommy
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To: blam
Thanks Blam, I'll ping the list later. [singing] "built canoes in the Red River Delta"
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

4 posted on 01/15/2005 5:16:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on January 13, 2005)
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To: rommy
a culture in Southeast Asia that practiced burials in boats.

Asian Vikings?

5 posted on 01/15/2005 5:21:11 PM PST by ASA Vet (I issue a MEJI report on all Trolls.)
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To: ASA Vet

The Sutton Hoo burial ship in England dates from the 7th century, more than 150 years before the first Viking raids on England.


6 posted on 01/15/2005 5:41:52 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: rommy; ASA Vet; Verginius Rufus
Check out this book review for Dr Robert Oppenheimer's excellent book, Eden In The East.

I think there is a strong possibility that proto-Celtic people came from SE Asia. Read the book.

"In Eden in the East Stephen Oppenheimer puts forward the astonishing argument that here in Southeast Asia was the cradle of civilisation that fertilised the great cultures of China, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Crete six thousand years ago."

7 posted on 01/15/2005 6:00:10 PM PST by blam
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: ProudFundamentalist; blam

Uh Oh... zot time


9 posted on 01/15/2005 6:06:27 PM PST by furball4paws ("These are Microbes."... "You have crobes?" BC)
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To: ProudFundamentalist
"These scientists can't date stuff. That's how they try to say evolution is true. Carbon dating and stuff is all lies to make people believe in evolution"

Goodbye!

10 posted on 01/15/2005 6:07:12 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

It floats??? Guess I's better start reading more than headlines


11 posted on 01/15/2005 6:09:59 PM PST by traderrob6
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To: blam

It always amazes me that wooden things can last that long. SE Asia isn't an area where I'd look for old wooden things. But burial makes sense. People with an intimate connection to the sea would certainly look to it as having some mystical aspects and death at sea would be common to them. Makes sense to bury important with some connection to water.


12 posted on 01/15/2005 6:13:01 PM PST by furball4paws ("These are Microbes."... "You have crobes?" BC)
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To: blam

Do you have you Oppenheimers mixed up? Certainly the Celts were long before this canoe, though.


13 posted on 01/15/2005 6:18:03 PM PST by furball4paws ("These are Microbes."... "You have crobes?" BC)
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To: furball4paws
"It always amazes me that wooden things can last that long. SE Asia isn't an area where I'd look for old wooden things."

Yup...And, you probably wouldn't look in Florida for mummies either. 169 7-8,000 year old mummies...90 have complete brains...And, guess what, they're Europeans.

Bye, Bye Beringia (8,000 Year Old Site In Florida)

14 posted on 01/15/2005 6:22:02 PM PST by blam
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To: furball4paws
"Do you have your Oppenheimers mixed up?"

I sure do. I mean Stephen not Robert.

Robert was the commie (along with Claus Fuchs) who was instrumental in giving the Soviets our atomic bomb secrets in the 50's.

15 posted on 01/15/2005 6:33:34 PM PST by blam
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To: Verginius Rufus

Technically Sutton Hoo was a buried ship, not a burial ship.


16 posted on 01/15/2005 8:00:09 PM PST by Oztrich Boy (here to help)
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To: blam

10m thats a pretty good sized canoe, an entire Family could have been buried in that. The Man/Woman must have been respected.


17 posted on 01/15/2005 10:18:37 PM PST by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: blam; FairOpinion; Ernest_at_the_Beach; SunkenCiv; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 4ConservativeJustices; ...
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

18 posted on 01/16/2005 5:58:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv (I last updated my profile on January 13, 2005)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: blam
A team from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra and conservators from the National Museum of Australia excavated a 2.5m section of the boat last month at Dong Xa, about 50 kilometres southeast of the capital Hanoi.

I had no idea Hanoi was the capitol of Australia.

20 posted on 01/16/2005 6:37:41 PM PST by ElkGroveDan
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