In November 2013, the Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology – Ethnology, Russian Academy of Science, and the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology carried out the excavation in Diêm Cave in Sánh Village, Thành Yên Commune, Thạch Thành District, Thanh Hóa Province.
Result:
- Burials: 3 burials, two of which were reburials, the other was first burial.
Burials in the first culture layer
- Remains of animals including deers, roe-deers, pigs, turtles, panthers, monkeys, and birds etc.
- Mollusca: mountain helix (Cycloporus sp.), small oysters, mussels etc.
Animal bone, animal teeth, and mollucous shells
- Stone artefacts: flakes, short axes, big pestles, hammers etc.
- Pottery: There were not many prehistoric pottery. Late Đông Sơn Culture styled pottery was discovered.
Comments:
- Diêm Cave was used to be people’s dwelling-place for a long time.
- Diêm Cave was also a place for making stone tools.
- Diêm Cave was a place for people’s burials in different culture layers.
- The remains of material culture excavated in Diêm Cave bear some similarities with those of Con Moong vestige (the upper culture layer), Lai Cave, Mang Chiêng Cave, Mộc Long Cave, Mộc Long Stone Roof, and Đắng Cave in the area of Cúc Phương National Park. Diêm Cave and the abovementioned vestiges can be considered to belong to Con Moong archaeological complex system.
Trương Thị Lan