Ritual bronze drum Vietnam Dong-Son period bronze drum from the Dong Son culture or also the Lạc Việt culture (named after Đông Sơn , a village in Vietnam) (circa 5 to 1 century BC) was a Bronze Age culture in ancient Vietnam that extended from 1000 B.C. to the first century AD in the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. The culture of Dong Son was named "Culture of Bronze Drums" after these cast cultic musical instruments with engraved decors. Its shape is probably of Indonesian origin, but there are also influences from southern China. The ornaments testify to an Indian Oceanic primitive culture. The representations seen from above are within the ornamented outer circle, which is divided by the two bands, also decorated with ornaments. They reach to the edge of the circular decoration that frames the central raised star symbol of the sun. height: 43.3 cm, Ø 66.3 cm literature: Die Kunst Vietnams, index of plates on page 39, numbers 1, 2 and 3, illustrations on pages 57, 58 and 59. provenance: old collection from Northern Germany