Ancient dagger found in Ha Tinh province
A 2,500-year-old bronze dagger believed to belong to the Dong Son culture has been discovered in a household in central Ha Tinh province.
Le Ba Hanh, Deputy Director of the provincial museum, said on April 1 that a group of the museum’s specialists found the dagger when it was being kept by Nguyen Van Minh, a resident in Xuan Hai commune, Nghi Xuan district.
The intact poniard weighs 1 kilogramme and measures 35 centimeters in length. It has a 15cm handle fitted by a 20cm-long, 5cm-wide bamboo leaf-shaped blade.
The handle is decorated with the image of a person of Dong Son style with hats and clothes carved with animal and half animal-half human patterns.
According to the initial assessment, this dagger is believed to be a weapon that the head of a tribe used to show his power during the Dong Son culture.
The Dong Son culture, a prehistoric Bronze Age in Vietnam, was centred at the Red River Valley from 1,000 BC to 1 BC and then influenced other parts of Southeast Asia. It was typical with the famous skilled bronze objects, such as Dong Son bronze drums.