Óc Eo, the port of Funan
The port city of Funan in the Mekong Delta, linked by canals to the sea and to Angkor Borei, stood on the sea routes between India and China; finds there range from Indian, Persian and Greek objects to gold pendants copying Roman coins of the 2nd century.
- Date
- between 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 600 years
- Place
- Óc Eotoday: Óc Eo, An Giang Province, Vietnam · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Funan
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Oc Eo; Óc Eo culture; Культура Ок Эо; Окео
Óc Eo lies in the Mekong Delta, by Mount Ba Thê. One canal connected it with its seaport; another ran 68 km north-north-east to Angkor Borei, possibly Funan’s capital. The French archaeologist Louis Malleret first surveyed the plain in 1942 and began excavating it on 10 February 1944; he identified the site with Cattigara, the port known to Roman merchants, but the identification is unproven. The finds include pottery, tools, jewellery and moulds for making it, seals, religious statues, Han bronze mirrors, Indian pottery, silver coins with the image of a hamsa bird, apparently minted in Funan, and gold pendants imitating Roman coins: one, long taken for a Roman medallion, copies an aureus of Antoninus Pius of 152, another, attributed by Malleret to Marcus Aurelius, an aureus of Commodus of 192 (B. Borell, 2014).
Archaeologists call the material culture of the delta typified by these finds the Óc Eo culture and date it to about the 1st–7th centuries; the site itself was inhabited both earlier and later. Funan was absorbed by the Khmer state of Chenla in the 6th century.
Connections
Includes
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Related events
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaÓc Eo was the port of the kingdom whose origins the legend describes
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250 · South AsiaIndian and Roman goods reached Óc Eo along the sea routes of the Indian Ocean
Adjacent events in the thread
- Khu Liên founds the kingdom of Linyibetween 190 and 193 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Edict of MilanFebruary 313
- Battle of the Milvian Bridge28 October 312
- Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395
- End of Roman rule in Britain383–410
- Crossing of the Rhine31 December 406
+ 32 events
Eastern Europe
- The Huns conquer the Alans and the Greuthungic. 370 – 376
- Vinitharius’ war with the Antes of Bozbetween 375 and 380
- Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
- The Goths settle in Oiumc. 180 – c. 230
+ 12 events
Balkans and Anatolia
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330
- First Council of Nicaeabetween May and June 325 – between July and August 325
- Battle of Adrianople9 August 378
- Gothic War (376–382)376 – 3 October 382
- Edict of Thessalonica27 February 380
+ 20 events
Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Vologases IV147–191
- Roman–Parthian War of 161–166161–166
- Ptolemy’s Geographyc. 150
- Ptolemy’s Almagestc. 150
- Bar Kokhba Revolt132–136
+ 11 events
Africa
- Vandal conquest of Roman AfricaMay 429 – 442
- Tertullian’s Apologeticus197
- Scillitan Martyrs17 July 180
- Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass)150s … 180s
- Vandalic WarJune 533 – March 534
+ 8 events
Central and Northern Asia
- Tanshihuai’s Xianbei confederationc. 156 – 181
- The Rabatak inscription of Kanishkabetween 132 and 150
- Ban Yong restores Han authority in the Western Regions123–127
- The Han abandon the Western Regions29 July 107
- Gan Ying’s mission to Da Qin (Rome)97
+ 6 events
South Asia
- The Muziris papyrus: a loan for a cargo from Indiabetween 140 and 160
- Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman Ic. 150
- Reign of Kanishka, the height of the Kushan Empirec. 127 – c. 150
- Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir (tradition)between 127 and 150 (?)
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
+ 5 events
East Asia
- Yellow Turban RebellionMarch 184 – between December 184 and January 185
- Lokaksema translates the first Mahayana sutras into Chinese179
- Partisan Prohibitions: purges of scholar-officials166–184
- Envoys from Da Qin (Rome) at the Han court166
- An Shigao begins translating Buddhist texts in Luoyang148
+ 10 events
North America
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
Latin America
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
- Preclassic Maya collapse: El Mirador is abandonedc. 100 – c. 250
- La Mojarra Stela 1: an Epi-Olmec text dated 156156
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Emergence of the Moche culturec. 100
+ 1 event
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Óc Eo
- Wikipedia (English): Funan
- Wikipedia (vi): Óc Eo
- Wikipedia (vi): Văn hóa Óc Eo
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бапном
- Manguin P.-Y. The Archaeology of Fu Nan in the Mekong River Delta: The Oc Eo Culture of Viet Nam // Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea / Ed. N. Tingley. — Houston: Museum of Fine Arts; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
- Borell B. The Power of Images – Coin Portraits of Roman Emperors on Jewellery Pendants in Early Southeast Asia // Zeitschrift für Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen. — 2014. — Bd. 6. — S. 7–43.
- Wikidata: Q2344822