Óc Eo (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

) is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

in modern-day Óc Eo

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

of Thoại Sơn District in

An Giang Province An Giang () is a province of Vietnam. It is located in the Mekong Delta, in the southwestern part of the country. Geography An Giang occupies a position in the upper reaches of the Mekong Delta. The Hậu Giang and Tiền Giang branches of ...

of southern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. Located in the

Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( vi, Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit=Nine Dragon River Delta or simply vi, Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, lit=Mekong River Delta, label=none), also known as the Western Region ( vi, Miền Tây, links=no) or South-weste ...

, Óc Eo was a busy port of the kingdom of

Funan Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...

between the 2nd century BC and 12th century AD and it may have been the port known to the

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

and

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Cattigara Cattigara is the name of a major port city located on the Magnus Sinus described by various antiquity sources. Modern scholars have linked Cattigara to the archaeological site of Óc Eo in present-day Vietnam. Ptolemy's description Cattigara w ...

. Scholars use the term Óc Eo culture to refer to the

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

of the Mekong Delta that is typified by the artifacts recovered at Óc Eo through archaeological investigation.

Archaeological site

Sites of Oc Eo Culture in Southern Vietnam

Excavation at Óc Eo began on February 10, 1942, after French archaeologists had discovered the site through the use of

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircra ...

. The first excavations were led by

Louis Malleret Louis Malleret (1901–1970) was a French archaeologist. Malleret together with Paul Levy are credited with first reporting the archeological site An Son in Southern Vietnam. References 1901 births 1970 deaths French archaeologists Pe ...

, who identified the site as the place called

by Roman merchants in the first centuries of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

. The site covers 450

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s. Óc Eo is situated within a network of ancient canals that crisscross the low flatland of the

. One of the canals connects Óc Eo to the town's seaport while another goes north-northeast to

Angkor Borei Angkor Borei ( km, អង្គរបូរី, ) is a district located in Takéo Province, in southern Cambodia. According to the 1998 census of Cambodia, it had a population of 44,980. Administration The district has 6 communes, 34 villages ( ...

. Óc Eo is longitudinally bisected by a canal, and there are four transverse canals along which pile-supported houses were perhaps ranged. Archaeological sites reflecting the

material culture Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects creat ...

of Óc Eo are spread throughout

southern Vietnam Southern Vietnam ( vi, Nam Bộ) is one of the three geographical regions of Vietnam, the other two being Northern and Central Vietnam. It includes 2 administrative regions, which in turn are divided into 19 ''First Tier units'', of which 17 a ...

, but are most heavily concentrated in the area of the Mekong Delta to the south and west of

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

. The most significant site, aside from Óc Eo itself, is at Tháp Muời north of the Tiền Giang River, where among other remains a

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

with a 6th-century

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

text has been discovered. Aerial photography in 1958 revealed that a

distributary A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributar ...

of the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , ...

entered the

Gulf of Thailand The Gulf of Thailand, also known as the Gulf of Siam, is a shallow inlet in the southwestern South China Sea, bounded between the southwestern shores of the Indochinese Peninsula and the northern half of the Malay Peninsula. It is around in l ...

during the

period in the vicinity of Ta Keo, which was then on the shore but since then become separated from the sea by some distance as a result of

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

. At that time, Ta Keo was connected by a canal with Óc Eo, allowing it access to the Gulf. The distributary of the Mekong revealed in the aerial photography was probably the ''Saenus'' mentioned in

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

’s ''

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

'' 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).

Remains

The remains found at Óc Eo include pottery, tools, jewelry, casts for making jewelry, coins, and religious statues. Among the finds are gold jewellery imitating coins from the

of the Antonine period.Higham, C., 2014, Early Mainland Southeast Asia, Bangkok: River Books Co., Ltd., Roman golden

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

lions from the reign of

Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius (Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatoria ...

, and possibly his successor

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

, have been discovered at Óc Eo, which was near Chinese-controlled Jiaozhou and the region where Chinese historical texts claim the Romans first landed before venturing further into China to conduct diplomacy in 166.Gary K. Young (2001), ''Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC - AD 305'', , p. 29. Many of the remains have been collected and are on exhibition in

Museum of Vietnamese History The Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History is located at 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Formerly known as the Musée Blanchard de la Brosse, built by Auguste Delaval in 1926, and The National Muse ...

. Among the coins found at Óc Eo by Malleret were eight made of silver bearing the image of the

hamsa The ''hamsa'' ( ar, خمسة, khamsa) is a palm-shaped amulet popular throughout North Africa and in the Middle East and commonly used in jewellery and wall hangings.Bernasek et al., 2008p. 12Sonbol, 2005pp. 355–359 Depicting the open right h ...

Vietnamese crested argus The Vietnamese crested argus (''Rheinardia ocellata'') is a large and spectacular peafowl-like species of bird in the pheasant family with dark-brown-spotted black and buff plumage, a heavy pink bill, brown irises and blue skin around the eyes. ...

, apparently minted in Funan.

Óc Eo and Funan

Óc Eo has been regarded as belonging to the historical kingdom of

(扶南) that flourished in the Mekong Delta between the 2nd century BC and the 12th century CE. The kingdom of Funan is known to us from the works of ancient Chinese historians, especially writers of dynastic histories, who in turn drew from the testimony of Chinese diplomats and travellers, and of foreign (including Funanese) embassies to the Chinese imperial courts. Indeed, the name "Funan" itself is an artifact of the Chinese histories, and does not appear in the paleographic record of ancient Vietnam or Cambodia. From the Chinese sources, however, it can be determined that a polity called "Funan" by the Chinese was the dominant polity located in the Mekong Delta region. As a result, archeological discoveries in that region that can be dated to the period of Funan have been identified with the historical polity of Funan. The discoveries at Óc Eo and related sites are our primary source for the

of Funan. The Vietnamese archaeologist and historian

Hà Văn Tấn Hà Văn Tấn (16 August 1937 – 27 November 2019) was a Vietnamese historian, archeologist, and scholar of Buddhism. He was born in Tiên Điền, Nghi Xuân, Hà Tĩnh, and became a professor at Vietnam National University, Hanoi Vietnam ...

has written that at the present stage of knowledge, it was impossible to demonstrate the existence of a Funan culture, widely spread from the Mekong Delta through the

Chao Praya The Chao Phraya ( or ; th, แม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา, , or ) is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand. Et ...

delta to Burma, with Óc Eo as the typical representative: the presence of similar artefacts such as jewelry and seals from sites in those areas was simply the result of trade and exchange, while each of the sites bore the signs of their own separate cultural development. He supported the view of Claude Jacques that, in view of the complete lack of any Khmer records relating to a kingdom by the name of Funan, use of this name should be abandoned in favour of the names, such as ''Aninditapura'', ''Bhavapura'', ''Shresthapura'' and ''Vyadhapura'', which are known from inscriptions to have been used at the time for cities in the region and provide a more accurate idea of the true geography of the ancient Khmer territory. Hà Văn Tấn argued that, from the late neolithic or early metal age, Óc Eo gradually emerged as an economic and cultural centre of the Mekong Delta and, with an important position on the Southeast Asian sea routes, became a meeting place for craftsmen and traders, which provided adequate conditions for urbanization, receiving foreign influences, notably from India, which in turn stimulated internal development. Funan was part of the region of Southeast Asia referred to in ancient Indian texts as

Suvarnabhumi ( sa, सुवर्णभूमि; Pali: '); my, သုဝဏ္ဏဘူမိ, ; km, សុវណ្ណភូមិ, ''Sovannaphoum''; and th, สุวรรณภูมิ, . is a toponym, that appears in many ancient Indian literary s ...

, and may have been the part to which the term was first applied.

Pang Khat Venerable Pang Khat also known as Bhikkhu Viriyapandito was a Cambodian Theravada ''bikkhu'' monk who was notorious from 1940 to 1975 and who is most famous for his translations from Sanskrit language to Khmer. Biography A promising youn ...

, «Le Bouddhisme au Cambodge», René de Berval, ''Présence du Bouddhisme,'' Paris, Gallimard, 1987, pp.535-551, pp.537, 538; Amarajiva Lochan, "India and Thailand: Early Trade Routes and Sea Ports", S.K. Maity, Upendra Thakur, A.K. Narain (eds,), ''Studies in Orientology: Essays in Memory of Prof. A.L. Basham,'' Agra, Y.K. Publishers, 1988, pp.222-235, pp.222, 229-230; Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, ''The Ascendancy of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia,'' Chieng Mai, Silkworm Books, 2010, p.55.

References

Sources

*Albert Herrmann, "Der Magnus Sinus und Cattigara nach Ptolemaeus", ''Comptes Rendus du 15me Congrès International de Géographie'', Amsterdam, 1938, Leiden, Brill, 1938, tome II, sect. IV
Géographie Historique et Histoire de la Géographie, pp. 123–8.
English translation a

*Albert Herrmann, "South-Eastern Asia on Ptolemy’s Map", ''Research and Progress: Quarterly Review of German Science,'' vol.V, no.2, March–April 1939, pp. 121–127, p. 123. *Albert Herrmann, ''Das Land der Seide und Tibet in Lichte der Antike,'' Leipzig, 1938, pp. 80, 84. *Louis Malleret, ''L’Archéologie du delta du Mékong,'' Tome Troisiéme, ''La culture du Fu-nan,'' Paris, 1962, chap.XXV, "Oc-Èo et Kattigara", pp. 421–54. *John Caverhill, "Some Attempts to ascertain the utmost Extent of the Knowledge of the Ancients in the East Indies", ''Philosophical Transactions,'' vol.57, 1767, pp. 155–174. *Adhir K. Chakravarti, "Early Sino-Indian Maritime Trade and Fu-Nan", D.C. Sircar (ed.), ''Early Indian Trade and Industry,'' Calcutta, University of Calcutta Centre of Advanced Study in Ancient Indian History and Culture, ''Lectures and Seminars,'' no. VIII-A, part I, 1972, pp. 101–117. *George Cœdès, "Fouilles en Cochinchine: Le Site de Go Oc Eo, Ancien Port du Royaume de Fou-nan", ''Artibus Asiae,'' vol.10, no.3, 1947, pp. 193–199. *George Coedès, review of Paul Wheatley, ''The Golden Khersonese'' (Kuala Lumpur, 1961), in ''T'oung Pao'' 通報, vol.49, parts 4/5, 1962, pp. 433–439. *George Coedès, "Some Problems in the Ancient History of the Hinduized States of South-East Asia", ''Journal of Southeast Asian History,'' vol.5, no.2, September 1964, pp. 1–14. *Albrecht Dihle, "Serer und Chinesen", in ''Antike und Orient: Gesammelte Aufsätze,'' Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1984, S.209. *J.W. McCrindle, ''Ancient India as described by Ptolemy,'' London, Trubner, 1885, revised edition by Ramachandra Jain, New Delhi, Today & Tomorrow's Printers & Publishers, 1974, p. 204: *George E. Nunn, ‘The Three Maplets attributed to Bartholomew Columbus’, ''Imago Mundi,'' 9 (1952), 12–22, page 15; and Helen Wallis, ‘What Columbus Knew’, History Today, 42 (May 1992), 17–23. *Quoted in J.M. Cohen (ed.), ''The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus,'' Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1969, p. 287. *Ha Van Tan, "Oc Eo: Endogenous and Exogenous Elements", ''Viet Nam Social Sciences,'' 1-2 (7-8), 1986, pp. 91–101. *R. Stein, "Le Lin-yi 林邑, sa localisation, sa contribution à la formation de Champa et ses liens avec la Chine", ''Han-Hiue'' 漢學, Bulletin du Centre d’Études sinologiques de Pékin, vol.II, pts.1-3, 1948, pp. 115, 122–3. *R. Stein, review of Albert Herrmann, ''Das Land der Seide und Tibet im Lichte der Antike'' (Leipzig, 1938), in ''Bulletin de l’École Française d’ Extrême-Orient,'' tome XL, fasc.2, 1940, p. 459. *Paul Lévy, "Le Kattigara de Ptolémée et les Étapes d’Agastya, le Héros de l’Expansion Hindoue en Extrême-Orient", in XXIe Congrès Internationale des Orientalistes, Paris, 1948, ''Actes,'' Paris, Société Asiatique de Paris, 1949, p. 223. *Paul Demiéville, review of R. Stein, "Le Lin-yi 林邑", (''Han-Hiue'' 漢學, vol.II, pts.1-3, 1948), in ''T'oung Pao'' 通報, vol.40, livres 4/5, 1951, pp. 336–351, n.b. pp. 338, 341. *Paul Lévy, "Recent Archaeological Researches by the École Français d’Extrême Orient, French Indo-China, 1940–1945", in Kalidas Nag (ed.), ''Sir William Jones: Bicentenary of his Birth Commemoration Volume, 1746–1946'', Calcutta, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1948, pp. 118–19; paraphrased in R. C. Majumdar, ''Ancient Indian colonisation in South-East Asia,'' Baroda, B.J. : Sandesara, 1963, pp. 12–13. * Pierre-Yves Manguin, "The archaeology of Fu Nan in the Mekong River Delta: the Oc Eo culture of Viet Nam ", in Nancy Tingley and Andreas Reinecke, ''Arts of ancient Viet Nam: from River Plain to Open Sea,'' Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2009, pp. 100–118. *Phạm Dức Mạnh, ''History of the South from the Original Advent of Civilization & Basic Material Relating to the Kingdom of Funan; Traditional Oc Eo Culture – Later Oc Eo (Research Material),'' Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City National University Faculty of Social Science & Literature, 2009. *Paul Wheatley, prefatory essay in Albert Herrmann, ''An historical atlas of China,'' Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1966, p.xxviii. * Srisakra Vallibotama and Dhida Saraya, "South-East Asia from ad 300 to 700: Oc-éo", in Sigfried J. de Laet, ''History of Humanity,'' London, New York and Paris, Routledge and Unesco, Volume III, 1996, Joachim Herrmann and Erik Zürcher (eds.), ''From the Seventh Century BC to the Seventh Century AD,'' pp. 428–29. *

John N. Miksic John Norman Miksic (born 29 October 1946) is an American-born archaeologist. Biography John Norman Miksic was born in Rochester, New York on 29 October 1946. His interest in archaeology began at an early age and inspired his future career as a his ...

, ''Singapore & the Silk Road of the Sea, 1300-1800,'' Singapore, NUS Press, 2014, pp.33-37, 45-56. {{DEFAULTSORT:Oc Eo Archaeological sites in Vietnam Ancient Vietnam Archaeological cultures of Southeast Asia Archaeological cultures in Vietnam Iron Age cultures of Asia Buildings and structures in An Giang province Archaeological cultures in Cambodia 1st-century establishments in Vietnam 7th-century disestablishments in Vietnam Townships in Vietnam Communes of An Giang province Populated places in An Giang province Funan