Abstract

The Tràng An Archaeological Project (TAAP) has focused on the excavation of three caves in the tower karst landscape of the isolated Tràng An limestone massif - located on the southwestern edge of the Sông Hồng (Red River) delta, Ninh Bình, Vietnam. The massif forms the central part of a designated park - the Tràng An Landscape Complex - covering 6,172 hectares and currently the subject of a World Heritage nomination bid and a showcase of the province’s historical, cultural and ecological significance at national and international levels. The archaeological record of Tràng An forms a major part of the park’s heritage value.

In late 2006 the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, was approached by the Xuân Trường Construction Company to conduct an independent archaeological investigation in this landscape. With the backing of the Ninh Bình People’s Committee and the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, archaeological field work under the direction of the author began in Tràng An in May 2007 and has continued through a succession of field seasons on a yearly basis since that time, and is anticipated to continue until 2014.

TAAP excavations at three caves (Hang Bói, Hang Trống and Hang Mòi) have together created a significant and almost unbroken archaeological record of early human activity spanning between c. 20,000 and 5,500 years before present. This is one of the longest such sequences in Việt Nam and includes one of the country’s oldest archaeological sites: Hang Trống; the present base of excavations at which is dated to more than 24,800 calibrated years before present. The archaeological record of Tràng An, as revealed through the multi-disciplinary study of these sites, has the scientific distinction of providing invaluable information about how hunter-gatherer groups lived within the local karstic landscape; including how they adapted to the inundation of regional coastlines and the profound environmental and geographic changes this instigated towards the end of the last ice age. It has the social distinction of representing a highly successful and mutually beneficial initiative between the scientific inquiry, economic development and heritage management. In this brief communication is presented a summary of the results of our investigations to date.