Con Moong Cave
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The Con Moong cave (Vietnamese: ''Hang Con Moong'', "beast" cave) is located in the
Cúc Phương National Park Cúc Phương National Park ( vi, Vườn quốc gia Cúc Phương) is located in Ninh Bình Province, in Vietnam's Red River Delta. Cuc Phuong was Vietnam's first national park and is the country's largest nature reserve. The park is one of the ...
, just south of Mọ village, in the Thanh Hóa Province, northern
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 ...
. The Department of Culture has issued a certificate that declares Con Moong prehistoric site and its surroundings as ''National Relics'' and is managed by the ''Cúc Phương National Park administration'', along with a refuge for rare animals. Among these locations, the archaeological site of Con Moong cave is of central importance for the study of the Mesolithic Hoabinhian culture. In April and May 1976, Vietnamese archaeologists excavated the site.UNESCO Site Description ''Con Moong Cave''
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Site description

The Con Moong limestone cavity lies about above a valley level on the right bank of the Red River, running along the
Da River The Black River, (, from the Tai language ''Da'' meaning "dark-brown") also known upstream as the Lixian River in China, is a river located in China and northwestern Vietnam. Course Its source is in Yunnan province of China. From China, the r ...
, about south-west of
Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
. The cave has two entrances that connect with one another. Excavations were made near the south-western entrance in an area of around and to a depth of . Ten strata, including the cave floor and the top crust (prefeudal to modern) were found and recorded in the cultural sediments. The Con Moong Cave may be one of the archaeological sites with the thickest cultural layers in Vietnam. Based on the structure of soil layers and typical items, the soil layers can be classified into three different cultural layers: # Down from the surface, layers 2, 3, and 4 belong to cultural layer III, which is the most recent. In this layer they found out some cobble tools, such as a Hòa Bình-style axe with blade, or Bắc Sơn-style and pottery. This is typical for Hòa Bình or Bắc Sơn culture. # Layers 6 and 7 belong to cultural layer II. Most of the tools found here present the typical features of Hòa Bình culture. The stone tools such as cutting tool with almond form, oval form, rectangular form; scraper of plate form, short axe, bone sharpen head tool, scraper of
mother of pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...
. The huddled tomb with yellow soil found here is also popular in Hòa Bình excavation sites. # Layer 9 is cultural layer I, the earliest. The typical stone tools with usable edges were covering one quarter of the cobble; there were also some fragments of broken wine bottles. These tools are typical for
Sơn Vi culture ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnam or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted elsewhere, ...
, proving that Hòa Bình culture comes from Sơn Vi culture. Layers 5 and 8 are thin, with thickness from 10 to 25 cm, having burnt spots and inorganic material. They are the boundary line dividing the 3 cultural layers. In all cultural layers, traces of cooking can be seen, the later ones being nearer to the cave entrance. Together with the kitchen areas are the shells of
mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000  extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
, such as '' Cyclophorus'', '' Camraena'', ''
Hybocystis ''Pollicaria'', commonly known as the elephant pupinid snails, is a genus of land snails with a gill and an operculum. They are in the family Pupinidae, superfamily Cyclophoroidea.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Pollicaria A. A. Gould, 18 ...
'', '' Antirnelania'', '' Lanceolaria'' sp. nohyriopsls, '' Ozynaia'', and ''
Meretrix Prostitution in ancient Rome was legal and licensed. In ancient Rome, even Social class in ancient Rome, Roman men of the highest social status were free to engage prostitutes of either sex without incurring moral disapproval, as long as they dem ...
''. Some of these molluscs are in situ, others smashed, closely mixed with each other or scattered in the soil.


History

Due to its long history of uninterrupted occupation, the Con Moong site is of great significance for the understanding of Vietnamese and South East Asian prehistory. Techniques to make cobble tools were continuously applied at the site during the
Sơn Vi culture ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnam or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted elsewhere, ...
the Hòa Bình culture and the Bắc Sơn culture. A continuous sequence of human cultural evolution with a distinct regionl character, from the end of the old stone age, through the middle stone age, to the new stone age, from hunter-gatherer culture to agriculture has occurred at the site. The development from the Old Stone Age to the New Stone Age in Vietnam also implies a change from the Pleistocene to the Holocene. Cultural layers I and II have various floristic compositions, which means that there is only sporoplasm (Polypodiaceae, Cyatheaceae) but not pollen; and vice versa, there is only pollen (Chenopodiaceae, Leguminosae, Rubiaceae, Myricaceae, Mzliaceae, Fagaceac) but not sporoplasm in cultural layer II. At present there are 17 generations C14 for cultural layers in different depths of the Con Moong excavation site. The duration between Pleistocene and Holocene of the Quaternary period in Vietnam that is more or less 10,000 years ago. In the Con Moong archaeological site, the existence of Sơn Vi culture at the end of the Old Stone Age has been reconfirmed by stratum document. Moreover, formerly Sơn Vi culture has been only known as existing before Hòa Bình culture but now it is known more clearly that it had been integrated with Hòa Bình culture at the utmost. Through the tombs found in cultural layers II and I, we have found out about the Sơn Vi ancient people. The mollusks, yellow soil, and stone wares buried together with the dead people suggest that there is a connection between Sơn Vi and Hòa Bình people based on the burial forms. The stone wares in layer II are of the Hòa Bình culture, but are big not small, and quite different from the European mesolithic. It means that in the mesolithic or epipaleolithic, people here did not use the bow and arrow as others, but rather the abundance of bamboo allowed them to use bows and cross-bows without armature, as in many other places. Layer III is of the Bắc Sơn culture, similar to Hòa Bình II that had been put forward before by M. Colani. Hòa Bình II or Bắc Sơn culture really belongs to the New Stone Age, with the appearance of axes with ground blades and pottery. With blade axes, the human beings had gained great achievement in production techniques of stone wares, the beginning for the New Stone Age revolution in Vietnam and the region.


World Heritage status

This site was added to the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
Tentative List on 21 June 2006, in the Cultural category.


Notes


References

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Vietnam Landforms of Thanh Hóa province Caves of Vietnam