Lieu Coc Twin Towers in the first excavation and archaeological period

Lieu Coc Twin Towers are located in Lieu Coc Thuong village, Bau Thap hamlet, now Xuan Thap residential group, Huong Xuan ward (Huong Tra town, Hue city).

The exploration and excavation area is 66m2.

According to the decision, the exploration and excavation area is 66m2. Specifically, the exploration area is 6m2 (including 2 holes x 3m2/1 hole), the excavation area is 60m2 (including 2 holes, hole 1: 50m2 and hole 2: 10m2). The exploration and excavation period takes place from April 25 to June 20, chaired by Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Chat, an officer of the National Museum of History.

During the period of archaeological exploration and excavation, the agency must pay attention to protecting the stratigraphy of the relic; be responsible for disseminating to the people about the protection of local cultural heritage, and not announce official conclusions without the agreement of the competent agency and the Department of Cultural Heritage.

The artifacts collected during the archaeological exploration and excavation process, the Hue City Museum of History and the Hue City Department of Culture and Sports are responsible for preserving and protecting the artifacts to avoid damage or loss and reporting to the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism on plans to protect and promote the value of those artifacts.

In addition, after the end of the archaeological exploration and excavation, the Department of Culture and Sports of Hue City and the National Museum of History must have a preliminary report and propose a plan for management and protection of the archaeological exploration and excavation area within 1 month at the latest and a scientific report within 1 year at the latest, sent to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Before announcing the results of the archaeological exploration and excavation, the agency granted the license must discuss and reach an agreement with the Department of Cultural Heritage.

Previously, in June 2024, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Chat, National Museum of History, presided over the exploration and excavation of the Lieu Coc Twin Towers. At that time, the exploration area was 20m2 (4 holes), the excavation area was 60m2 (3 holes) and was carried out within 2 months. The excavation process expanded and connected the excavation holes (H1, H2, H3) together to form a large hole (9.4 x 10.3m), surrounding the foundation of the North Tower architecture. Thereby, the ground plan, scale and structure of the North Tower temple architecture were clearly determined.

Excavated and revealed many new information

Along with revealing the scale of the North Tower's foundation structure and other related architectural vestiges, the excavation also collected a mass of relics including more than 4,800 specimens. The main focus is on architectural materials, architectural decorations, stone stele and relief fragments, glazed ceramics, porcelain, terracotta and metal coins. Notably, there is a statue head in the form of a relief, made on one side from purple-gray slate, depicting the head of a Buddha statue with the remaining dimensions of 20cm high, 15cm wide, 10cm thick. The statue's face is round, eyes half-closed, high nose bridge, pursed lips, wide and clear corners of the lips, two long flowing ears, spiral-shaped hair, dating from the 11th - 12th century. Or a round coin, square hole, one side embossed with 4 characters Nguyen Phong thong bao, written in Hanh thao style, dating from the 13th century.

Many artifacts were found in the first excavation and archaeological survey.

With the initial results, the expert team tentatively dated the construction of Bac Lieu Coc tower to the late 9th century, corresponding to the age of My Son C2 tower, in the early stage of Dong Duong art style.

During that process, according to Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Chat, there were differences in the decoration of the columns and wall pillars of these two towers. It is likely that the two towers were not built at the same time. That requires further documentation when conditions permit, and when the excavation area is expanded.

Some experts and researchers believe that the excavation of the Lieu Coc Twin Towers has yielded very important results, so they should continue to expand the excavation to a larger scale, along with specific solutions to protect the relic.

Thus, after more than 10 months since the first archaeological exploration and excavation, the archaeological exploration and excavation of Lieu Coc Twin Towers will be conducted in phase 2.

Typical religious architecture of the Cham people

Lieu Coc Twin Towers is a typical religious architectural work of the Cham people. This is an architectural and artistic relic of great value, marking a development period in the history and culture of the Vietnamese people in general and the Cham people in particular. In 1926, the Lieu Coc Twin Towers relic was studied by the Far Eastern Archaeological Institute and ranked as an ancient relic in the whole of Vietnam and Indochina at that time. In 1994, the relic was ranked as a National Architectural and Artistic Relic by the Minister of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).

Over time, due to lack of restoration and embellishment to promote, the relic is at risk of falling into a state of "ruins". Currently, the surrounding wall system, architectures such as the Fire Tower, Stele Tower, Gate Tower or Front Hall/Long House Tower, paths... no longer have traces on the ground. In 2018, the People's Committee of Huong Tra Town invested in building a system of protective fences and cleaning the landscape of the relic. In 2022, the Department of Culture and Information of Huong Tra Town coordinated with the Hue City Museum of History, the People's Committee of Huong Xuan Ward and functional units to measure, locate and set up markers, demarcate protection zones and establish procedures to grant land use right certificates for the relic, thereby mobilizing people to resolve, plan graves, create paths and roads to the relic. And, by the end of 2023, the concrete road from National Highway 1A to the relic and the parking lot were completed by the locality.

Although in a state of serious degradation and damage, compared to the Champa temples known from Bac My Son (Quang Nam) outwards, besides Phu Dien tower, Lieu Coc Twin Towers is the relic with the best preservation status.

NHAT MINH

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/thong-tin-van-hoa/se-tiep-tuc-khai-quat-khao-co-di-tich-thap-doi-lieu-coc-giai-doan-2-152750.html