In afternoon of 28th Decemeber 2006, Binh Dinh Province Department of Culture and Information organized a meeting to report on results of the recent archaeological excavation at Duong Long Cham Tower Group (at Tay Binh Commune, Tay Son District).
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Some stone items excavated at Duong Long Cham Tower Group.
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A whole area surrounding foundation of three towers of the group was exposed. This revealed the fact that base system of Duong Long Cham Tower Group was decorated and engraved with ashlars. At the foot of the stone bases, there were beautiful carved hoops with main alternative decoration designs of up-and-down lotus flowers, breasts and Makara faces gushing 5-head Naga snakes from their mouths. In term of construction techniques, Duong Long Tower Group doesn’t resemble any other Cham towers in BinhDinhProvince. After cleaning the base area, Cham people carefully rammed down a 0.15m-layer of gravel-lagoon sand mixed mortar. 4 layers of laterite and 4 layers of brick were repectively put on the mortar. Pieces of the brickwere closely put together into a flat foundation on which the towers were built. Thanks to the well-built base and foundation, Duong Long Tower Group doesn’t lean down like other towers although the tower group is big and tall.
1.020 great-mass stone relivos and 262 items of architectural material were excavated. Besides the stone items, many pieces of terracotta dated from Song and Ming Chinese Dynasties, from Ly-Tran and Le Dynasties (Dai Viet – the old historical name of Vietnam at that time) were found. Especially, a piece of Islam terracotta or Muslim-style enamel terracotta (common in Near Middle East) was also discovered at the excavation site.
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