Considerations on the bronze drums discovered in Bình Định province of the central Vietnam and its cultural context

摘要

15 pieces of bronze drum in Bình Định Province, central Vietnam are suggestive materials for understanding the technological and cultural contexts of the bronze drums in Southeast Asia. This paper considered its technological and cultural background based on the restudy of the bronze drum collection and their discovery sites. The chronological frequencies of the drum assemblage indicate that the duration of the bronze drum usage is not long successive period (1st C. BC to 2nd C.AD) and possibly stopped the bronze drum usage at the same time or in very short duration. Only Gò Rộng drum was identified as the possibly local-made drum by lost-wax technique and the other are transported from the northern Vietnam. No bronze drums later than the 3b period (later than the late 2nd C. AD) of Imamura’s chronology are seen in not only Bình Định but also central and southern Vietnam, Cambodia, coastal area of Thailand and Malay Peninsular. During the 2nd C.AD, the early states formation or political integration with the strong influence from India and China are already evidenced in this region. Especially the Indianized ideas for the statecraft and religion possibly left no space for the survival of the bronze drum usage in their society. Thus this ending period of the bronze drum usage well accords with the real beginning of the Indianization in the Southeast Asia.