The Hoàng Hạ drum (LSb.5723)
Bronze
Diameter of the surface: 78,5cm
Diameter of the base: 79,9cm
Height: 61,5cm
Đông Sơn culture. Circa 2500 – 2000 BCEN
Recognizing Decision 01426/QĐ-TTg on the 1st October 2012 by the Prime Minister of Vietnam
Discovered in Hoàng Hạ village, Văn Hoàng commune, Phú Xuyên district, Hà Nội city in 1937
Hoàng Hạ drum
The Hoàng Hạ drum belongs in a special classification of artifacts including drums of Ngọc Lũ, Sông Đà and Cổ Loa which are among the finest ones of the Đông Sơn bronze drums.
The drum has a well-proportioned shape with delicate decorations, and consists of four parts, including the tympanum/face, the upper barrel, the cylindrical body, and the foot. The tympanum edges over the rim of barrel. The tympanum centre is decorated with a relief 16- ray sun, surrounded by 15 circular pattern bands. The patterns are geometric shapes, tangent circles with dots at their hearts. In particular, on the main pattern band is adorned with motifs of stilt house, disguised people dancing, people playing drums and image of the Lạc birds moving counter clockwise. The upper bulbous barrel is designed with motifs of 6 boats moving counter clockwise, people rowing boats, warriors holding weapons, prisoners being judged, and the long-beaked birds between the boats alternately. The cylindrical body’s decorative motifs are geometric shapes and disguised people dancing. The drum foot is truncated cone-shaped and slightly flared.
Such unique and vivid decorations on the Hoàng Hạ drum not only reflect the rich material and spiritual life of the Đông Sơn people who practiced wet-rice agriculture, but also manifest the peak development of bronze casting technique during the early period of state-building of the ancient Vietnamese people.