Co Loa: an investigation of Vietnam's ancient capital

Kim, Nam C.; Toi, Lai Van; Hiep, Trinh Hoang

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00067041

Cited by 22 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…23 In 2007-08 a joint Vietnamese-American team dated the construction of the ramparts at Co Loa in Northern Vietnam to the fourth century BCE through a series of radiocarbon dates associated with pottery inside and below the construction. 24 To summarise I argue that Hermann Kulke's 1990 'convergence hypothesis' has some heuristic value. It shows that the almost simultaneous emergence of complex societies on both sides of the Bay of Bengal was based on long established and local processes of social and technical development, as exemplified by the results obtained at Ban Don Ta Phet and Khao Sam Kaeo.…”

Section: Dating Early Historic Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting prehistoric and historic cultures in Southeast Asia

Glover¹

2016

J. Southeast Asian stud.

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Linking the early historic cultures of Southeast Asia to their prehistoric antecedents has, despite some decades of research, proved difficult for a number of reasons. Until the 1960s, this did not seem to be an issue for scholars of the region. For George Coedès, the region was simply occupied by diverse and backward ethnic and linguistic communities, cultivators using stone tools, or at best, people using bronze with poorly developed social organisations until impacted by the expanding Han peoples during the third century CE: ‘There is very little direct information about the societies of South East Asia before they entered into contact with India and China.’

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Section: Dating Early Historic Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connecting prehistoric and historic cultures in Southeast Asia

Glover¹

2016

J. Southeast Asian stud.

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“…By contrast, cities as compact population centers presented more tractable possibilities of resource management and display. Inner urban landscapes enabled the physical personage of the ruler to be visually augmented by monumental constructions-fortification walls, central plazas, inscriptions, religious structures-that emphasized authority and served as a testament to leaders' organizational capacities as well as a materialization of more abstract concepts such as territoriality (e.g., Moore 2005;Kim et al 2010;Ardren & Lowry 2011, pp. 439-40;Gallon 2013;Kim 2013).…”

Section: Political Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology of Urban Landscapes

Smith

2014

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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Urban centers have inner and outer landscapes whose physical remains can be read as the materialization of social, political, economic, and ritual interactions. Inner landscapes are manifested in architecture and spatial organizations that configure relationships on the basis of economic status, ethnicity, occupation, age grade, and gender within the city. Outer landscapes are composed of the hinterlands on which urban centers depend for resources, including agricultural products and in-migrating laborers who seek economic and social opportunities. Urban-based elites reach deep into the countryside not only as a matter of political control, but also for investment of centralized resources into infrastructure such as canals, roads, and territorial borders. The monumental and household configurations of cities, expressed both at the heart of urban centers and in their countrysides, enable a distinct phenomenology of interaction mapped into daily experiences.

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“…A combination of artifacts, building methods, and radiometric data suggests that what i refer to as the Co Loa polity constructed the bulk of the ramparts during the third and second centuries b.c. Elsewhere, i have argued that the sheer size and scale of Co Loa's fortifications suggest original construction was directed by centralized, state-level political power, and the settlement appears to be an early form of a Southeast Asian city and political capital ( Kim 2010( Kim , 2013Kim et al 2010).…”

Section: The Co Loa Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Landscapes of War and Political Regeneration

Kim¹

2013

asi

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This article examines the production, uses, and reuses of cultural landscapes within contexts of warfare and political change. Ancient concerns over defense and security have led societies to construct fortification features involving extensive modifications to landscapes in many parts of the world. Social memories are often tied to these militarized landscapes, with embedded meanings and values that persist and morph through time. Due to the potential commemorative power offered by militarized landscapes, leadership strategies related to political regeneration can make use of these built environments. Consequently, the significance of these locales is not limited to military functions, as they can be appropriated by later societies for political agendas. The Co Loa site of modern-day Vietnam’s Red River delta, for instance, illustrates such a locality where warfare and politics intersect. Still standing largely intact today, the site’s monumental system of fortification features dominates the local landscape, reflecting broad alterations of the surrounding terrain. Although the system was originally put into place during the Iron Age, later societies have capitalized on the site’s physical and ideological properties for various military and sociopolitical agendas.

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Co Loa: an investigation of Vietnam's ancient capital

Cited by 22 publications

References 10 publications

Connecting prehistoric and historic cultures in Southeast Asia

Connecting prehistoric and historic cultures in Southeast Asia

The Archaeology of Urban Landscapes

Cultural Landscapes of War and Political Regeneration

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