Thanh Hóa in the context of Thanh Hóa Province

The Dong Son culture, Dongsonian culture, or the Lạc Việt culture (named for modern village Đông Sơn, a village in Thanh Hóa, Vietnam) was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Vietnam centred at the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam from 1000 BC until the first century AD. Vietnamese historians attribute the culture to the states of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc. Its influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, including Maritime Southeast Asia, from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.

The Đông Sơn people were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping water buffalos and pigs, fishing and sailing in long dugout canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, which is evidenced by the Dong Son drum found widely throughout northern Vietnam and Guangxi in China.

The Dong Son culture, Dongsonian culture, or the Lạc Việt culture (named for modern village Đông Sơn, a village in Thanh Hóa, Vietnam) was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Southeast Asia and China. It was prominent specifically in the Southeast Asian countries of Vietnam (ancient northern Vietnam at the Red River Valley), Malaysia, and Laos, and the Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Fujian from 1000 BC until the first century AD. Vietnamese historians attribute the culture to the states of Văn Lang and Âu Lạc and its influence spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, including Maritime Southeast Asia, from about 1000 BC to 1 BC.

The Đông Sơn people were skilled at cultivating rice, keeping water buffalos and pigs, fishing and sailing in long dugout canoes. They also were skilled bronze casters, which is evidenced by the Dong Son drum found widely throughout northern Vietnam and Guangxi in China.

Đông Sơn village (Vietnamese: làng Đông Sơn) is a small village on the banks of the Mã River in Hàm Rồng ward, Thanh Hóa city, Thanh Hóa Province. The village is best known for the discovery in 1924 of artifacts of what was later named Đông Sơn culture.

In 1924 a local fisherman stumbled on some bronze artifacts. On learning of the discovery the director of the École française d'Extrême-Orient, Léonard Eugène Aurousseau (1888-1929), instructed a local French customs official named Louis Pajot to investigate the location. Pajot immediately discovered numerous graves and set to work to excavate them. When the importance of the finds was realised the site was entrusted to professional archaeologists including Olov Janse.