Champa And The Archaeology Of M S N Vietnam

The kings of ancient Champa, a civilization located in the central region of today's Vietnam, started building sacred temples in a circular valley more than 1500 years ago. The monuments, now known by the Vietnamese name M? So'n, were discovered by nineteenth-century colonial soldiers and first studied by the French architect Henri Parmentier. Bombed during the Vietnam War, the ruins of the brick towers, decorated with exquisite carvings and sculptures, were designated as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1999. An Italian team has worked at the site for the last ten years, doing archaeological research and restoration work in cooperation with Vietnamese specialists. This book is the first published volume based on their efforts. The opening section consists of historical, anthropological and architectural studies of the civilization of Champa. The remainder of the book presents an unusually intimate and extensively illustrated portrait of the archaeologists' research and restoration work at M? So'n. While this book is important for specialists and students of the history and archaeology of Champa and Southeast Asia, it also tells a fascinating story that will appeal to general readers and visitors to this exceptional archaeological site.

The Cham people once inhabited and ruled over a large stretch of what is now the central Vietnamese coast. Written by specialists in history, archaeology, anthropology, art history, and linguistics, these essays reassess the ways that the Cham have been studied.

In the past quarter century, Champa scholarship has been seeking ways out of the interpretative framework inherited from Georges Maspero’s Le royaume de Champa, which portrayed Champa as a unitary kingdom of provinces ruled by “absolute” kings. Scholars have since been working to revise this portrait, to develop new thinking about the way the kingdom and its territories were structured, and also to critique Maspero’s decision to end his history of Champa with the 1471 capture of the Chà Bàn citadel and fall of Vijaya. Much new data has been produced in recent decades, thanks especially to the access to Champa field sites enjoyed since the 1990s by international scholars under Vietnam’s open door policy, and to the resources for research and discussion now available to Vietnamese scholars. Several long-term joint projects have, moreover, brought Vietnamese and overseas expertise to bear on archaeological sites or collections of documents related to Champa. The production of knowledge about Champa is thus thriving. The result is an incremental, multi-disciplinary mosaic of information on Champa’s past. Some of this scholarship was published in two recent volumes: Champa and the Archaeology of M? S?n (Hardy et al. 2009) and The Cham of Vietnam (Tr?n K? Ph??ng & Lockhart 2011). The present volume stands in the same tradition, as a book of ground-breaking data that contributes to the renewal of Champa studies. As these data are gradually sorted, new patterns that transform our understanding of Champa are becoming discernible. One of the most striking pertains to maps. This book offers a new framework for general discussion of Champa’s space, and several new maps that amount to a template for cartographical representations of the kingdom and its territories at specific historical moments. Another contribution of this volume is the publication of new data that yield ground-breaking insights into the nature of Champa’s presence in the highlands. Part I of the book focuses on the territories that constituted Champa, making use of data from recent excavations, archaeological and ethnographic surveys, inscriptions, and Cham-language manuscripts from the post-1471 period. In Part II, we turn to Champa as a kingdom, using data from epigraphy and Vietnamese chronicles, but also from architectural-archaeological study of a royal temple foundation at M? S?n. Three authors present new data and analysis of the Champa kingdom in the 15th century, grappling with the issue of the kingdom’s tendency toward fragmentation and eventual decline. Part III focusses on the regional connectedness of Champa. These include diplomatic and cultural exchanges with China and India, artistic and trading relations with mainland Southeast Asian countries, and language links with the Malay World.

The Origins of Ancient Vietnam explores the origins of civilization in the Red River Delta of Vietnam and how related studies can inform our understanding of ancient societies, generally, and the foundations of Vietnamese culture, specifically. Long believed to be the cradle of Vietnamese civilization, this area has been referenced by Vietnamese and Chinese writers for centuries, many recording colorful tales and legends about the region's prehistory. One of the most enduring accounts relates the story of the Au Lac Kingdom and its capital of Co Loa. Founded during the third century BC, according to legend, the fortified city's ramparts still stand today. However, there are ongoing debates about the origins of the site, the validity of the literary accounts, and the link between the prehistoric past and later Vietnamese societies. The Han Empire's later annexation of the region, combined with the problematic accounts found in the Chinese chronicles, further complicates these questions. Recent decades of archaeology in the region have provided new perspectives for examining these issues. The material record reveals indigenous trajectories of cultural change throughout the prehistoric period, culminating in the emergence of a politically sophisticated society. Specifically, new data indicate the founding of Co Loa by an ancient state, centuries before the Han arrival. In The Origins of Ancient Vietnam, Nam Kim synthesizes the archaeological evidence for this momentous development, placing Co Loa within a wider, global setting of emergent cities, states, and civilizations.

The history of Vietnam is one of spectacular confrontations, both cultural and ideological between the world of the Chinese - a world adopted by the ethnic Viet living in the Red river basin - and the Indian world - facets of which are seen in the Cham, whose numerous small kingdoms were strung out all along the coast from north of Hue to south of Phan Rang. This book will firstly present the history of Vietnam from the 6th to 15th centuries, highlighting the clashes between the two major civilisations which are the foundation of modern Vietnam. The second part will deal with the archaeology of the sites which are a testament to this history. Maps, plans and numerous photographs will help us to experience the history of ancient Vietnam both in its early beginnings and its subsequent evolution. Traces the history of Vietnam from its early beginnings to the emergence of the Cham civilisation and beyond Explores numerous archaeological sites and monuments In-depth research by a world renowned scholar Includes maps and plans of important archaeological and historical sites 300 colour photographs

This volume represents the first major bioarchaeological investigation of human health and behaviour in ancient northern Vietnam. Using dental and skeletal samples excavated by Vietnamese archaeologists from the 1960s through to 1990s, this study compares and contrasts the human condition in two key temporal periods in Vietnamese prehistory: mid-Holocene sedentary hunter-gathers and the emerging Bronze and Iron Ages. Specifically, osteoarthritis, oral health, markers of physiological stress in childhood (enamel hypoplasia and cribra orbitalia), general disease and traumatic injury are explored and discussed in detail. The wealth of data provided by the author will furnish the interested reader with a solid comparative basis from which to explore other aspects of health and behaviour in ancient Southeast Asia specifically, and the broader region in general.

Presenting both the need for - and difficulty of - introducing effective cultural resource management (CRM) in the region, 'Rethinking Cultural Resource Management' in Southeast Asia explores the challenges facing efforts to protect Southeast Asia's indigenous cultures and archaeological sites from the ravages of tourism and economic development. Recognising the inapplicability of Euro-American solutions to this part of the world, the essays of this volume investigate their own set of region-specific CRM strategies, and acknowledge both the necessity and possibility of mediating between the conflicting interests of short-term profitability and long-term sustainability.