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Trong dong dong son drum from vietnam
The Đông Sơn culture (literally "East Mountain culture", but from the name of Đông Sơn village) was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Vietnam centered at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam from 700-500 BC until the first century AD. It was the last great culture of Văn Lang (as Vietnam was known then) and continued well into the next Vietnamese state of Âu Lạc. Its influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, including Maritime Southeast Asia, from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.
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The Đông Sơn people, who are also known as Lạc or Lạc Việt, were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping water buffalos and pigs, fishing and sailing in long dugout canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, which is evidenced by the Đông Sơn drums found widely throughout northern Vietnam and Southern China.
To the south of the Đông Sơn culture was the proto-Cham Sa Huỳnh culture.
Origins
The origins of Đông Sơn 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 north-eastern Thailand in the 1970s, the casting of bronze began in Southeast Asia first. The Đông Sơn bronze industry has a local origin, equivalent in timing to the Go 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.
The bronze drums were used for war, "the chief summons the warriors of the tribe by beating the drum", when mourning, and during feasts. "The scenes cast onto the drums would inform us that the Dong Son leaders had access to bronze founders of remarkable skill." The Lost-wax casting was based on Chinese founders, but the scenes are local, including drummers and other musicians, warriors, rice processing, birds, deer, war vessels, and geometric designs.
The bronze drums were made in significant proportions in northern Vietnam and parts of southern China in Yunnan. The Đông Sơn bronze drums exhibit "remarkable skill". The Co Loa drum weighs 72 Kg, and would have required the smelting of between 1 and 7 tonnes of copper ore.