Dong Nai and Sa Huynh Early Culture

Dong Nai culture was centered in the southeast, around the later site of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.  Iron and bronze agricultural tools, axes, and animal statues have been found in mounds from the Phu Nam Kingdom in the Mekong Delta from the First to Sixth Century.
See Chapter on Hoa Lu.

     Sa Huynh culture was in the central region from the end of the third millennium BC, reaching a peak in the first millennium BC, stretching from the highlands to the sea.  There were strong trading links with Dong Son to the north and with southeast Asia.  There were many competing tribes, and later the Champa Kingdom from about 100 to 900 AD.  The Chams spoke a Malay-Polynesian language and were Hindu (and later Muslim).
See chapter on Cham Temple in Nha Trang.