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Óc Eo culture

Óc Eo
Commune
Núi Ba Thê, thị trấn Óc Eo, huyện Thoại Sơn, An Giang; Mount Ba Thê ភ្នំបាឋេ, Óc Eo town អូរកែវ, Thoại Sơn district, An Giang Province.
Núi Ba Thê, thị trấn Óc Eo, huyện Thoại Sơn, An Giang; Mount Ba Thê ភ្នំបាឋេ, Óc Eo town អូរកែវ, Thoại Sơn district, An Giang Province.
Óc Eo is located in Vietnam
Óc Eo
Óc Eo
Location in Vietnam
Coordinates: 10°15′17″N 105°9′6″E / 10.25472°N 105.15167°E / 10.25472; 105.15167Coordinates: 10°15′17″N 105°9′6″E / 10.25472°N 105.15167°E / 10.25472; 105.15167
Country  Vietnam
Province An Giang Province
District Thoại Sơn District
Time zone UTC+7 (UTC+7)
Prehistoric and ancient cultures of Vietnam
Paleolithic
Sơn Vi culture (20,000–12,000 BC)
Mesolithic
Hoabinhian (12,000–10,000 BC)
Neolithic
Bắc Sơn culture (10,000–8,000 BC)
Quỳnh Văn culture (8,000–6,000 BC)
Đa Bút culture (4,000–3,000 BC)
Bronze Age
Phùng Nguyên culture (2,000–1,500 BC)
Đồng Đậu culture (1,500–1,000 BC)
Gò Mun culture (1,000–800 BC)
Đông Sơn culture (1,000 BC–100 AD)
Iron Age
Sa Huỳnh culture (1,000 BC–200 AD)
Óc Eo culture (1–630 AD)

Óc Eo (French, from Khmer: អូរកែវ, O Keo, "Glass Canal") is an archaeological site in Thoại Sơn District in southern An Giang Province, Vietnam, in the Mekong River Delta. It is also one of the modern day communes of Vietnam. Óc Eo may have been a busy port of the kingdom of Funan between the 1st and 7th centuries. Scholars use the term "Óc Eo Culture" to refer to the ancient material culture of the Mekong Delta region that is typified by the artifacts recovered at Óc Eo through archeological investigation.

Excavation at Óc Eo began on February 10, 1942, after French archaeologists had discovered the site through the use of aerial photography. The first excavations were led by Louis Malleret. The site covers 450 ha.

Óc Eo is situated within a network of ancient canals that crisscross the low flatland of the Mekong Delta. One of the canals connects Óc Eo to the town's seaport while another goes 68 kilometres (42 mi) north-northeast to Angkor Borei. Óc Eo is longitudinally bisected by a canal, and there are four transverse canals along which pile-supported houses were perhaps ranged.

Archeological sites reflecting the material culture of Óc Eo are spread throughout southern Vietnam, but are most heavily concentrated in the area of the Mekong Delta to the south and west of Ho Chi Minh City. The most significant site, aside from Óc Eo itself, is at Tháp Muời north of the Tien Giang River, where among other remains a stele with a 6th-century Sanskrit text has been discovered.

Aerial photography in 1958 revealed that during the Funan period a distributary of the Mekong entered the Gulf of Thailand in the vicinity of Ta Keo, which was then on the shore but since then become separated by some distance from the sea as a result of siltation. At that time, Ta Keo was connected by a canal with Oc Eo, allowing it access to the Gulf. The distributary of the Mekong revealed in the aerial photography was probably the Saenus mentioned in Ptolemy’s Geography as the western branch of the Mekong, which Ptolemy called the Cottiaris. The Cattigara in Ptolemy's Geography could be derived from a Sanskrit word, either Kottinagara (Strong City) or Kirtinagara (Renowned City).


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