Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2016 - 50

which propelled northern Vietnam from an era of scattered rural settlements to one of centralized power and urbanization. "Depending on the estimates, we're looking at maybe 500 to 600 hectares [approximately 1,500 acres] of space," Kim says of the area enclosed by the outermost wall. Most other settlements from the same time period are significantly smaller. "Co Loa," he says, "is simply unparalleled." The settlement is encircled by walls three times over, and inside the ramparts, archaeologists have discovered the remains of firing kilns, carefully decorated roof tiles, weapons, and large-scale bronze workshops. Before Kim's work helped establish Co Loa's timeline, there were two accounts of when and how the city came to be: one from written foreign sources and another from Vietnam's folk history. According to Chinese historical texts, centralized power in Vietnam can be traced back to the influence of the Han Dynasty, which invaded and settled in the area in the second century b.c. It was the Han, these texts state, who brought advanced agricultural ideas, military expertise, and building techniques to a less-developed, "barbaric," part of Asia. The alternate version comes from Vietnamese legends. They suggest that a small empire-the Au Lac Kingdom-was united by an ancient Vietnamese army general, An Duong In this satellite photo, miles of Co Loa's walls are visible as dark bands spiraling around the Vuong. He was a military genius and modern town at center. New research is examining when and how the walls were built. an astute ruler, who wielded a magic crossbow given to him by a golden It is now understood that from among this smattering of turtle. For his capital, he picked a location close to the Red settlements, Co Loa grew into a polity the likes of which the River, flanked by mountains and thick forest. region had never seen-and in a matter of just decades. The "Vietnamese historians and archaeologists began to officity featured large-scale earthworks, a complex system of cially research these topics in the 1960s," says Trinh Hoang Hiep, an archaeologist at the Vietnamese Institute of Archaewater management, and an area large enough to hold a truly ology and Kim's collaborator at the Co Loa site. "But the local urban population. It drew upon a labor force large enough to people living in the area of Co Loa have known about these build its ramparts, divert river water, and feed an expanding stories for much longer due to the existence of folklore and population. Significantly, according to Kim's research at the oral traditions for many generations." Trinh learned about An site, it became this urban center hundreds of years earlier than Duong Vuong in high school. "It is something that every stupreviously thought. Kim's timeline places the earliest rampart dent learns about," he says, "even if they do not exactly know construction well before a Han Dynasty invasion that took about the archaeology." place in 111 b.c. The city's development was long believed to Kim's findings, which establish that some of Co Loa's walls be a result of this occupation, but it now appears, rather, to predate Chinese presence in the area by centuries, appear to be a story of cultural exchange and emulation, drawing from favor folktale over written history-that the city was founded both Dongson and Chinese influences and technologies, all of 50 ARCHAEOLOGY * July/August 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2016