Far East Kingdoms

Cai Beo Culture (Neolithic) (Vietnam)
c.5000 - 3000 BC

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Human history in Asia as a whole provides one of the earliest stories outside of the Near East and Africa. However, human history in South-East Asia is relatively obscure. Anatomically modern humans in the form of Homo sapiens reached the region around 60,000 BC, quickly expanding into Oceania and East Asia soon afterwards (see the Hominid Chronology feature link for more).

The Neolithic Cai Beo (or Cei Bau) succeeded the Soi Nhu, a localised South-East Asian Palaeolithic culture which was focussed on the western side of the Gulf of Tonkin. That had been the second-earliest regional culture to emerge which was specific to Vietnam, with it and its successor existing for millennia in a small expanse of territory which was centred on the gulf's Ha Long Bay.

This area of more than two thousand islands and islets and coastal stretches of freshwater swamp forest provided for a fishing-focussed people. They gradually brought in influences from dominant external cultures, but very slowly and gradually, remaining archaeologically distinct at least until about 1000 BC.

That dominant external culture during the entirety of the Cai Bao was the Da But, which was heavily focussed on Vietnam and surrounding eastern and northern areas of South-East Asia. The Cai Beo itself emerged with the Mai Pha on its northern flank, another small and long-lived localised culture, and was seen out by it to be succeeded by the Ha Long.

The Cai Beo was located in Ha Long and on Cat Ba island, with its participants further developing long millennia of practice at exploiting local maritime resources. Around the same time as Johann Andersson was uncovering the existence of the Soi Nhu in 1938, French archaeologist Madeline Colani was uncovering details about the Cai Beo in the Lan Ha Bay and Halong Bay areas.

Excavations in these areas have yielded a rich supply of over five hundred artefacts, including pestles and mortars, grinding tables, axes, nets, statues, and unfired pottery, plus human and animal bones. Bronze implements and decorated pottery have also been uncovered which indicate that the Cai Beo culture was quite advanced in some ways, and perhaps traded widely too.

Archaeological finds are constantly being made, and archaeological cultures are frequently being updated with new information. Get in touch here if this page also requires updating.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Vietnam: A New History, Christopher Goscha, from Early Mainland Southeast Asia, C Higham (River Books Co, 2014), from Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopaedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Keat Gin Ooi (ABC-Clio, 2004), from The Macmillan Dictionary of Archaeology, Ruth D Whitehouse (Macmillan, 1983), and from External Links: Bradshaw Foundation, and Vietnam (Countrystudies), and Vietnam pre-historic era (Inside Travel), and Ha Long Bay (Tonkin Cruises), and Cultural & Historical Value of Ha Long (Paradise Vietnam), and Cultural and historical flows of Ha Long Bay (NhanDan).)

c.5000 BC

The Neolithic Cai Beo (or Cei Bau) succeeds the Soi Nhu as another localised South-East Asian culture, one which is focussed on the western side of the Gulf of Tonkin. The Mai Pha already exists to its north, while the Da But is dominant outside its small area of influence.

In those caves which now form a museum of archaological excavation, the remains of freshwater snail shells have been found for the Soi Nhu and Cai Beo cultures which date to about 16,000-5000 BC

Excavations in Ha Long and on Cat Ba island have yielded a rich supply of several hundred artefacts, including pestles and mortars, grinding tables, axes, nets, statues, and unfired pottery. Bronze implements are found which suggest long-distance trading, and decorated pottery becomes quite advanced.