A series of new heritage discoveries were found during several field-trips from November 2018 to May 2019 in whole area of The Central Highlands with supporting from the project, coded TN17/T06. The most remarkable discoveries are two archaeological sites: The first one is located on Ho Tre crater in Krong Ana district, Dak Lak province and the second one – along the Ba river ancient valley, in Phu Thien district, Gia Lai province. On Ho Tre crater, we collected many types of archaeological artifacts, including stone hand-axes in oval and short shapes, stone cores, flakes, grind-stones, making-fire stones (?), and several broken fragments pieces of pottery, which featured for the shape and technique types in the Neolithic Age. In archaeological sites in Phu Thien district, a series of stone tools, including uni-facial and bi-facial tools, rough-cutting tools such as side-chopper, end-chopper scrapers, spearhead tools, flake tools, etc., characterized as the shape and technique types in duration the Paleolithic Age were found. These findings play an important role in science to clarify development process of human history since pre-history up to now in Vietnam and in the region as well. Moreover, it is more significant to possibly establish a conservation strategy and to locally develop tourism. Keywords: Archaeological site, stone tool, Paleolithic, Neolithic, The Central Highlands.
The paper presents the initial results of the study of volcanic cave system and its typical formations in Krongno Volcano Geopark (KVG), Dak Nong, Vietnam. The volcanic caves have been discovered since 2007, under UNESCO sponsored the scientific project, are seen as unique geological heritages. The collaborative surveys and studies between Vietnamese geologists and the members of the Non-Profit Organization, Vulcanospeleological Society of Japan have discovered and surveyed 45 caves, and detailed mapping 20 caves. Using a complex of adequate methods, especially Remote Sensing image interpretation method, Surveying and mapping lava cave method, K/Ar dating isotopic analytical method and Current methodology, the studies aim to affirm endogenous origin of the lava cave system, the formation mechanism, as well as the typical formations of the caves. Up to date, the lava caves and interior formation in lava caves in KVG have been examined and evaluated in term of geological nature and recognized as pillar geological heritages of the Geopark.References Allred K., AllredC., 1997. Development and morphology of Kazumura Cave, Hawaii. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, 59(2), 67-80.Allred K., Allred C., 1997. Tubular lava stalactites and other related segregations. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, 60(3), 131-140.Barnabás Korbély, 2014. Diverse volcanic features as dominant landscape elements and pillars of geotourism in the Bakony-Balaton Geopark, Hungary. Abstract Book Workshop “Geoparks in volcanic areas: sustainable development strategies”, October 29th to November 1st, 2014. Terceira and Graciosa Islands, Azores Global Geopark, 35-38.Bird Deanne K., et al., 2014. Southern Iceland: Volcanoes, Tourism and Volcanic Risk Reduction.In Volcanic Tourist Destinations. Springer, Editors: Erfurt-Cooper, Patricia (Ed.). 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The Krongno Volcanic Geopark in Dak Nong province with a unique and largest volcanic cave system in SE Asia discovered in 2007 occupies an area about 2,000 km 2 in the Krong No, Cu Jut and Dak Mil districts and several neighboring communes in the Dak Song and Dak Glong districts. In 2016, Vietnamese archaeologists discovered a number of archaeological sites in hilly, farmland and riverine areas in the Krong-No Volcanic Geopark; however, none had been found in the volcanic caves. During the late December 2016-early January 2017 field trip, a survey team led by Vietnam National Museum of Nature, VAST, discovered a series of archaeological sites and relics with a relatively high density in volcanic caves in the Krongno Volcanic Geopark. The discovered archaeological remnants include (1) stone materials and tools such as dish-shaped tools, short axes, blade-ground short axes, oval axes and blade-ground oval axes; flake tools, stone flakes, stone slabs; anvils, graters, pestles, etc., hand-fitting sharp quartzite stones and pieces of loess; (2) pottery, containing various ceramic tools with different thicknesses, mostly fired at low temperature, crumbly, made of fine sandy loam, hand-kneaded, simple forms, mainly pots and containers having relatively sharp sculptings of varied patterns on the pottery shards such as dot-dash, dotted line, dashed line, twisted rope, etc.; (3) animal and teeth bones, including fragments of animal bone, or bones of prehistoric human (?). The bones are mostly decayed and fragile when dry; the hollow portions of bones are filled with porous clay slurry. In addition to the bone fragments, there are cheek teeth of animals some are fossilized. Preliminary determination suggested the teeth are of herbivores. Most of the archaeological artifacts were found in caves with flat floors, having mouths facing east, southeast or south heading to relatively wide areas to absorb the light, close to water sources and convenient to commute. These are the first prehistoric archaeological findings in volcanic caves in Vietnam, which will be studied in more detail by Vietnam National Museum of Nature, VAST, and other authorized agencies to highlight a new type of settlement, a new adaptive trend of prehistoric dwellers in the Central Highlands and to open a new archaeological study in the volcanic caves in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
In dry season of 2019, a series of new mix-heritages containing both of natural/geological and prehistoric archaeological values were discovered along the Ba river ancient valley by the field survey team of the project TN17/T06. The archaeological relics were uncovered right in the geological heritage sites such as: waterfalls, fossil sites, ancient terraces, and low mountain slopes along the Ba river ancient valley, which belong to eluvial, deluvial, proluvial and alluvial formations of Pleistocene age. Hundreds of stone tools, including dozens of petrified wood tools were collected, such as: uni-facial and bi-facial tools, end-chooper, side-chopper, scraper, spearhead tool, flake and core tools, etc. The materials of the tools were made of quartz, quartzite, siliceous stone, opal-chalcedony, petrified wood and basalt, which were recognized as geological heritages (A type: Paleontology; D type: Rock; F type: Minerals, according to the classification in the Circular 50/2017-TT-BTNMT of MONRE) of the heritage region. The collected artifacts characterise technique and geometric shape types of Paleolithic age. The archaeological discoveried sites were highly evaluated by Vietnamese and foreign archaeologists because they play a great important role in studying Paleolithic stage in Gia Lai province and The Central Highlands particularly, and in Vietnam and Southeast Asia generally. Besides, they have increased comprihensive heritage values of the region, as well as provided double invaluable resources (both natural and cultural heritage) for tourism exploitation and socio-economic sustainable development.
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