Successful casting of Dong Son drum from original mold

Dong Son bronze drums were first successfully cast based on terracotta molds discovered at Luy Lau relic, Bac Ninh province.

On the morning of November 22, the National Museum of History organized a special exhibition of newly collected Dong Son cultural relics and newly discovered bronze drum molds in Luy Lau through archaeological excavations.

Announcing the successful casting of the Dong Son bronze drum, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hoan, Deputy Director of the National Museum of History, said that this was the result of the discovery of nearly 1,000 pieces of terracotta drum molds in 7 square meters of land at Luy Lau ancient citadel, Tri Qua commune, Thuan Thanh district, Bac Ninh province in 2022.

Empty clay molds were discovered. Photo: Gia Chinh — Pieces of empty terracotta molds were discovered. Photo: *Gia Chinh*

Based on the mold fragment, archaeologists from the National Museum of History sketched the shape of the drum and surveyed casting villages across the country. Che Dong village, Thieu Trung commune, Thieu Hoa district, Thanh Hoa province was chosen as the place to experiment with drum casting.

After more than a month of work, the cast drum basically met the technical and aesthetic requirements from thickness, weight to decorative patterns and resonance. "The Luy Lau bronze drum became the first to be cast on the scientific basis of mold pieces. This shows that Luy Lau was a center of bronze casting in the past, and at the same time affirms the strong vitality of Dong Son culture," said Ms. Hoan.

The Dong Son bronze drum was successfully cast. Photo: Gia Chinh — The Dong Son bronze drum was successfully cast. Photo: *Gia Chinh*

Previously, from 1964 to 1975, the National Museum of History cooperated with the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum to test casting the Ngoc Lu bronze drum of the Dong Son culture (2,000-2,500 years ago) based on analysis of alloy composition and technical traces on the artifact. After four unsuccessful casting experiments, the fifth casting was assessed to be about 80% of the original drum.

Bronze drums are typical relics of the Dong Son culture, which appeared 800-200 years BC, with a wide range from South China (China) to Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, bronze drums are mainly distributed in the northern and north central provinces. This is the period that witnessed the strong development of metallurgy technology and the perfection of bronze casting technology.

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