Con Co Ngua Cemetery
Con Co Ngua Da But Cemetery · Da But Con Co Ngua
Hoabinhian late 6000 BP → Da But Neolithic transition·Da But — Hoabinhian→Neolithic cemetery transition on Ma plain·🇻🇳 Vietnam, North Central Vietnam, Thanh Hoa Province, Ha Trung District, Con Co Ngua horseshoe limestone knoll at Ma River plain 35 km north of Thanh Hoa City, Red River Delta south fringe, Vietnam
About
About Con Co Ngua Cemetery
Con Co Ngua Cemetery — Da But cemetery (6000–5500 BP, late Hoabinhian-Neolithic transition) on limestone knoll at Ha Trung 35 km N Thanh Hoa, excavated 1979–98 and 2013 by V. Oxenham–Vietnamese Institute: 170+ extended supine burials in densely packed cemetery (30×20 m) with Da But extended burial rite (red ochre, shell beads), pre-pottery late Hoabinhian → Da But pottery transition proving sedentism before farming. Con Co Ngua is mainland Southeast Asia's largest pre-agricultural cemetery, showing 6000 BP hunter-gatherer complex sedentism with pottery incipience and ground stone adzes before Phu Tho Phung Nguyen bronze. Ma River plain knoll osteology reveals violence and pathology.
Why it mattersSE Asia's largest hunter-gatherer cemetery — Hoabinhian to Da But sedentism before farming and bronze
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Hoabinhian sedentism — foraging intensification or proto-farming?
Theories
- 01Ma River as Da But transition corridor model
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.6000–5500 BP Da But cemetery peak
- Period
- Hoabinhian late 6000 BP → Da But Neolithic transition
- Culture
- Da But — Hoabinhian→Neolithic cemetery transition on Ma plain
- Builders
- Hoabinhian fisher-foragers transitioning to sedentism
- Purpose
- Foothill knoll cemetery documenting Vietnam's largest hunter-gatherer sedentary transition before bronze
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.6000 BP
Hoabinhian hunter cemetery established on Ma knoll
c.5500 BP
Da But pottery incipience and sedentary fluorescence
2013
Oxenham re-excavation defines SE Asia's largest forager cemetery
On the ground
Structures & features
20.1400° N · 105.7300° E · 12 m · 2 mapped features
Central Dense Burial Concentration
burial170-burial dense concentration with red ochre and shell beads at knoll centre 30×20 m
20.1410° N · 105.7310° EPeripheral Pottery Incipience Floor
settlementDa But incipient pottery floor with ground adzes on limestone periphery
20.1390° N · 105.7290° E