Pham Huy Thong Museum in Quang Yen Town (Quang Ninh) currently preserves and displays extremely valuable artifacts, including many unique ancient boats serving the Vietnamese archaeological sector.
Pham Huy Thong Museum – The One-of-a-Kind Ancient Boat Museum
Today Pham Huy Thong Museum is displaying the wooden stakes planted by Ngo Quyen in the Bach Dang River, along with numerous ceramic and porcelain items, stone objects, bronze drums, a set of swords from the Hung Kings period, a reproduction of a human face from the Dong Son cultural period…
The exterior of the museum is simple. Photo: Nguoi Dua Tin Newspaper.
Although the museum is not large and does not have too many artifacts, visitors touring the exhibition rooms and viewing the antiquities can imagine the lives of ancient Vietnamese people thousands of years ago.
However, the most special artifacts at Pham Huy Thong Museum are 22 dugout canoes. These boats were collected and salvaged along the Kinh Thay River (Hai Duong) over an extended period from 2016 to 2018.
An ancient boat. Photo: Nguoi Dua Tin Newspaper.
The ancient boats are the result of the research team's tremendous efforts, as archaeological records were very sparse, and the exact locations of the boats had to be determined before excavations could be organized due to limited funding.
The museum also once excavated and salvaged part of the stern of a Dong Son-period basket boat used as a coffin. To date, the museum displays 6 boats dating from the Dong Son period (2400-1900 years ago), 5 boats from the period of Northern domination (from the beginning of the Common Era to the 9th century), and 9 boats from the periods of the Dai Co Viet and Dai Viet states (from the 10th-17th centuries).
Photo: Nguoi Dua Tin Newspaper.
Most of these are dugout canoes, while some have holes carved into both sides to support raised wooden planks or bamboo. In daily life, people used these boats for travel and fishing, but during wartime they became small warships. Only a small number of boats had sharply pointed bows and were used exclusively for combat.
The Kinh Thay River receives water from the Luc Dau River (at the Lau Khe junction, Chi Linh, Hai Duong). Hydrologically, this is a zone where floodwater and tides reach equilibrium, causing heavy objects to be pushed, concentrated, and deposited on the riverbed. As a result, antiquities are often found here.
Preserving ancient boats in water. Photo: Nguoi Dua Tin Newspaper.
Historically, soldiers gathered here during the Tran dynasty's war against the Mongol-Yuan forces. Culturally, in the past, from the Lau Khe junction downstream to Binh Bridge, there were many pottery villages and kilns along the Kinh Thay River. That is why ceramics, tools, and metal weapons are found here.
A restored bat-wing boat. Photo: Dr. Nguyen Viet.
At Pham Huy Thong Museum, 6 boats are currently displayed on land, while 16 are being preserved by immersion in water. In 2017, a new bat-wing sailboat was built, an ancient type of boat used to study boat-building techniques and methods of steering boats in the waterways of northern Vietnam in the past.
