istory

Main article: History of Vietnam

Prehistory

A Đông Sơn bronze drum, c. 800 BC.

Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as
early as the Paleolithic age. Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found
in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam.[18] The oldest Homo
sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, and include
isolated tooth fragments from Tham Om and Hang Hum.[19][20][21] Teeth attributed to Homo
sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have been found at Dong Can,[22] and from the
Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu,[23][24] Lang Gao[25][26] and Lang Cuom.[27] By about 1,000 BC, the
development of wet-rice cultivation in the Ma River and Red River floodplains led to the
flourishing of Đông Sơn culture,[28][29] notable for its bronze casting used to make elaborate
bronze Đông Sơn drums.[30][31][32] At this point, the early Vietnamese kingdoms of Văn Lang and Âu
Lạc appeared, and the culture's influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia,
including Maritime Southeast Asia, throughout the first millennium BC.[31][33]

Dynastic Vietnam