The compound tombs at Cho Lach (Ben Tre)

Abstract

Between April & May 2014, the Department of Archaeology (Faculty of History, University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City) and the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism of Ben Tre Province conducted an excavation of the compound tomb at Chợ Lách town (Chợ Lách district, Bến Tre Province). The main results are as follows: Archaeologists detected two raising architectures on brick ground like the architectural model of mausoleum, in which the big Mausoleum lies approximately directed southward, offset 3° east, including a stele house and a burial house in scale of 300cm in width, 240cm in length and 185- 205cm in height designed for 2-adult burial (normally a married couple often found in Nam Bộ Tombs). Two graves are of rectangular form because only soil walls surrounded the graves. They are submerged in water in the depth of 70-275cm, decomposed, containing just a piece of the adult skull, 5 very small bronze balls and plant traces (as coconut fiber and fruit (Mangrove palm), Bần rind (Sonneratia) and Ráng leaves (Acrosticlum aureum Linn), pottery and ceramic pieces etc. The small architectural mausoleum with stele and burial houses was opened heading straight West and with the scale of 140cm in length, 65cm in width and 95cm in height. The rectangular burial pit, with the dimension of length 130cm, width 60cm, depth 70cm, not flooded, so the wooden coffin covered by sarcophagus with iron nails is preserved. There are remains of a lying face-up child, spreading legs, wearing 2 bronze buttons. The baby was about 2-4 years old with the height of 100-110cm. From the results of forensic examination and comparative research into the tomb structure scale and the artifact collected from the excavated pit, the authors state that: The tomb monuments in Cho Lach belong to the styles of stele and burial house for aristocratic title, to the Nguyen Dynasty in two centuries 18th and 19th, with structure building material, brick grounds, steel frames, wooden coffins with iron nails, spherical virtual buttons, ceramic fragments etc. For the first time in Vietnam, tomb monuments contained such specific characteristics as 5 very small bronze balls and plant traces (as coconut fiber and fruit (Mangrove palm), Bần rind (Sonneratia) and Ráng leaves (Acrosticlum aureum Linn), pottery and ceramic pieces etc. Especially the first time in Vietnam, archaeologists find 2 aristocratic mausoleums sitting next to each other, perhaps belonging to the same family, in which the parents were lying in big burial pits and their child (ageing from 2 to 4 only) was lying in a small burial pit, but a majestic stele house of this model has still been built from the Medieval & Post-Medieval Ages.