A Dong Son Community: Connecting Communities Through a Shared Bronze Tradition

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Dong Son culture (c. 700 BCE to 200 AD), at its simplest, is a collection of a group of sites and artifacts that are characteristic of a particular group or region in northern Vietnam. Their most defining characteristics are their burial practices (i.e., the boat coffins) and their sophisticated bronze tradition seen from artifacts like weapons (i.e., swords/daggers, spears, crossbows, etc.) and prestige goods (i.e., bronze drums, thap, etc.). The presence of these shared practices, specifically the bronze tradition, suggests a community of craftspeople that regularly interacted and shared knowledge to develop their craft; otherwise known as a community of practice. This poster will focus on the way the production of these bronze artifacts can impart social meaning within the Dong Son community, and how that social meaning can be distributed and eventually shared; thus, creating a Dong Son community of practice. By exploring a Dong Son community of practice through the production of bronze artifacts, this research could provide insight in understanding how craft production can influence the relationship between intra-regional and possibly even inter-regional communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40152.0