For example, the columns in the Dai La period were only placed on 1 or 2 wooden bars. During the Dinh - Tien Le period, the reinforcement of the columns was more focused on with the strengthening of the wooden bars below and the addition of wooden bars above, so the column foundation was more solid and could withstand the force better.
The innovation that differentiates it from the architecture of the Dai La period is the appearance of the column foundation using stone blocks placed under the foundation pit, under the base of the foundation using tiles, clay or gravel for reinforcement. The stone base is not carefully crafted, the shape is not definite.
Architectural plan , in the Dinh - Tien Le period, there appeared a type of architecture with two rows of column foundations, the four corners of the architecture had column foundations diagonally located at about 45 degrees compared to the direction of the plan. This type of architectural plan has not been found in the Dai La period. The architectural plan consists of two main rooms and two side rooms, the average distance between rooms is 5.0m, the side rooms have an average width of 2.0m.
The entire upper part of the structures has been destroyed, however, the characteristics of the construction materials and decorations on the roofs of the structures found show that the structures of this period were built very elaborately, with outstanding features of decorative art. Standing out among the relics is a brick with the Chinese characters " Dai Viet Quoc Quan Thanh Chuyen " embossed in a rectangular frame, meaning bricks to build the army of Dai Viet. The ends of the roof tiles are decorated with lotus flowers, and the rectangular gutter tiles and the roof tiles are decorated with mandarin ducks or halos made from red clay, similar to those discovered in the ancient capital of Hoa Lu. Thus, the roofs of the structures are all covered with yin-yang tiles, with exquisite decorative reliefs attached.
The discoveries and research at 18 Hoang Dieu have contributed to affirming the artistic and architectural values of the Dinh - Tien Le period with its own national characteristics, with the exchange with other cultures in the region. Those valuable creations are the premise, the stepping stone for the development and prosperity in the period of 11th - 14th centuries, in which the Ly Dynasty was the peak, creating brilliant achievements of Dai Viet Civilization.
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Relic Site of Trinh Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem:
In 1009, Ly Cong Uan ascended the throne, opening the Ly Dynasty with achievements in all aspects. The following year - 1010, Ly Thai To made a wise decision to move the capital from Hoa Lu to Dai La citadel " the old capital of Cao Vuong" and changed its name to Thang Long. Immediately after that, the Ly Dynasty planned to rebuild the capital Thang Long.
In 1029 - 1030, the construction of Thang Long was completed with 3 closed walls, inside was a system of palaces and majestic towers, bringing a new stature to the city of flying dragons.
According to historical documents, during the 216 years of the Ly Dynasty, architectural works were built in the capital Thang Long with high density and large scale, each with its own unique characteristics.
The results of the underground excavation at site 18 - Hoang Dieu initially identified 53 traces of palace architectural foundations, 7 surrounding wall foundations, 6 water wells, and 13 drainage pipes.
The excavation area of Vuon Hong has contributed 04 Ly Dynasty relics to the overall architectural relics of the Ly Dynasty at the Archaeological Relic Site 18 Hoang Dieu. The relics here have all the characteristics of Ly Dynasty architecture, even more solid, in terms of technique, more sophisticated and elaborate in terms of scale and architectural structure. On the other hand, the more valuable ones at that time were all important relics, located in the center, so there were new contributions in terms of floor plan, contributing to affirming the existence of a central axis of the Ly Dynasty architectural system at 18 Hoang Dieu, located to the west of the current Thang Long Imperial Citadel.
The achievements in architectural construction have reached their peak, the traces of architectural works are identified through the system of foundations, foundation bundles, column foundations, plinths, courtyards and complexes of architectural auxiliary works such as surrounding walls, water sewers, water wells forming architectural complexes distributed symmetrically, harmoniously, and uniformly, demonstrating the great contributions and creativity of the Dai Viet army and people in the early Ly Dynasty.
The element that is easily recognizable is the rise beyond the influence of Chinese culture, creating the foundation for new values, which is the elevation of the foundation and covering all the relics of the Dai La period, averaging from 0.6m to 1.00m, spreading over the entire area of the capital. This is more meaningful when knowing that the foundation soil is from the Hai Hung layer, exploited and transported from elsewhere. It is a layer of brown clay, pure, mottled with iron-brown laterite that can be found anywhere in the 18 - Hoang Dieu site.
An important achievement in the architectural construction technique of the Ly Dynasty was the system of stone foundations supporting the columns of the wooden house frame along with the roof with other components.
The decorative part has large size and weight. Most of the column foundations are of the positive column foundation type besides a limited number of architectures with negative column foundations.
In terms of form, column foundations are extremely diverse with the following types: square column foundations with an average side size ranging from 1.3m to 1.5m, the foundation pit is dug from 1.5m to 3.0m deep, commonly found inside the foundations of architectural structures; square column foundations with smaller sizes (1.1m x 1.1m) are often built in structures with 6 column foundations, on which uncarved stone pedestals are placed; rectangular column foundations, with a length twice as long as the width (1.1m x 2.2m), on which are placed just enough 2 stone pedestals to support the columns, called double column foundations, this type of column foundation is always associated with small square column foundations in 6 column foundation architectures. More unique and only appearing during the Ly Dynasty is the circular column foundation, with an average diameter of 1.1m, arranged in “hexagonal” architecture, where there are 6 circular column foundations distributed around a square column foundation in the middle, creating a 6-petal flower-shaped foundation. The column foundations are reinforced and compacted with a variety of materials, in addition to clay, which is the material that is found in any column foundation, there are also pieces of tile, ceramic and baked bags, but the most common is river pebbles.
During the Ly Dynasty, the tradition of using negative columns continued, in which stone pedestals were placed near the bottom of the foundation pit to support the column feet, but the Ly Dynasty builders cleverly combined negative columns and positive columns to increase the load-bearing capacity and durability of the structure. The negative columns of this period no longer participated in the main load-bearing system but were distributed around the outside, inside the structure was a system of positive columns on which were placed pedestals carved with lotus patterns on the surface. That was the difference in the use of negative columns in architecture compared to previous periods.
The ground plan of the buildings is usually rectangular, with many compartments, commonly the architecture with odd compartments: 7 compartments, 9 compartments, 11 compartments, 13 compartments. The architectural ground plan with even compartments has also been found in area E with 6 compartments, 8 compartments or 10 compartments. Besides, there are small-scale architectures with 6 column foundations forming a ground plan including 2 main compartments and 2 wings created by 2 stone pedestals supporting the columns on double column foundations. The most unique and causing researchers to give different explanations about the function is the architecture with a "hexagonal" ground plan with column foundations distributed within a diameter of about 3.5m.
The “circular” architectural plan at the Rose Garden site has contributed new material to the understanding of the diversity of styles and techniques of construction of the works.
Ly Dynasty architecture can contribute to deciphering historical records and inscriptions about a grand and most important ceremony in the Ly Dynasty court, held annually on the king's birthday or important occasions of the country, the "Quang Chieu lantern" festival as recorded in the Sung Thien Dien Linh tower stele.
The common architectural span measures range from 4.8m to 6.0m, with some architectural spans as wide as 6.7m to 7.0m, which has shocked and led to doubts about the usefulness of some researchers. Some negative opinions have not acknowledged the existence of architectural works with such large spans.
In each of the G1 and G2 pits of the Rose Garden site, there are 6 exposed column bases, which is unique in the overall architectural relics of the Ly Dynasty at 18 Hoang Dieu.
The frames of the structures were all made of wood, so they were destroyed through historical and natural changes. However, the floor and roofing components of the structures were found in large quantities, including yin-yang tiles, lotus-shaped tiles, architectural decorative components attached to the roof and to the ends of the roof-edge tiles. On the roof, there are also decorative reliefs of dragons, phoenixes, and mandarin ducks in some parts such as the ridge and the ridge.
Underneath the architecture, the building materials are also very diverse with many types used flexibly in the architectural positions. Square bricks are used for paving, some are decorated with patterns and some are not. The common pattern on square bricks is the lotus or chrysanthemum motif, delicate and softly curved. Rectangular bricks are used to build the foundation around the building, many of which have Chinese characters printed on them or are used in the construction of auxiliary works of the architecture. In addition, there are bricks with isosceles trapezoid or parallelogram cross-sections that are commonly used in the construction of water pipes above the ground.
Thus, the above archaeological evidence has demonstrated the process of building and constructing Thang Long. It is a clear evidence for the peak development in the art of construction and architectural decoration, for the brilliant development of Dai Viet civilization in the period of 11th - 13th century.
In 1225, Ly Chieu Hoang abdicated to Tran Canh, ending 216 years of glory of the Ly dynasty, opening a new dynasty in the feudal history of Vietnam.
Tran Dynasty . Coming to power to rule the country, the Tran Dynasty maintained and continued the work of the previous Ly Dynasty. However, in its 175-year history, promoting the spirit of victory in the wars against foreign invaders, the values obtained in the previous dynasty were brought to a new level. The appearance of Thang Long was planned and changed, architectural works were renovated, repaired or newly built to suit. Notable among these were two large-scale construction periods carried out in 1289 and 1371.
Archaeological traces at 18 - Hoang Dieu show that, in the foundations of architectural works built during the Ly Dynasty, layers of renovation, repair, and expansion during the Tran Dynasty were identified. That is the expansion of the northern and southern foundations of the architecture in pit B16, accordingly, the auxiliary works of the architecture were also changed accordingly. The appearance of a brick-paved foundation layer covering the Ly Dynasty's water sewer, next to the brick foundation of a new water sewer moved to the West in pit B5 is clear evidence of renovation activities taking place during the early period of the Tran Dynasty. Or like at the "octagonal" architecture of the Ly Dynasty in area C, the excavation in 2014 revealed a layer of the Tran Dynasty's architectural foundation lying directly on the previous Ly Dynasty's architectural foundation, but the column foundations of the Ly Dynasty's works remained intact, without any changes.
In the following stages, major changes in planning have resulted in the appearance of new architectural relics interwoven and overlapping with the architectural foundation relics of the Ly Dynasty. On that basis, archaeologists have discovered and identified 7 palace foundation relics built around the end of the 13th century along with a system of auxiliary architectural works such as lakes, wells, and a system of brick-built walls, with the base of the wall decorated with lemon flower panels.
To build the architectural works of the Tran Dynasty, a large amount of human and material resources were mobilized. The foundation of the relics was made of yellow-brown clay, mottled with yellow and white-yellow clay deposits of the Vinh Phuc layer, which was mined and transported to Thang Long to serve the construction of architectural works.
The architecture of the Tran Dynasty was severely destroyed by later periods. The remaining identifiable traces are the column foundations , which show that they still adopted the techniques and materials from the Ly Dynasty, which is the compaction of gravel, tiles and clay into layers in the column foundation pits. Materials such as earthenware and fired bricks used in the construction of column foundations of the Ly Dynasty have not been found until the Tran Dynasty, or perhaps these materials are no longer used.
A clear evidence for the changes in the architectural plan is the system of surrounding walls built around a single architectural unit or an architectural complex. The traces of the surrounding walls were built on top of the column foundations of the Ly Dynasty architecture and have the unique characteristics of the Tran Dynasty. If in the Ly Dynasty's surrounding walls, the wall foundation was solidly reinforced with gravel, tiles, and compacted clay, the wall body was built with bricks, then in the Tran Dynasty, the wall foundation was no longer solid, the wall body was on average 0.95m to 1.10m wide, built with bricks, the base of the wall was beautifully decorated with tiles and bricks stylized in the shape of lemon flowers. And a new type of surrounding wall appeared, with both sides built with bricks, the wall body was filled with various materials. Overall, the foundations of the surrounding walls of phase 1 of the Tran Dynasty are connected to the remains in pit D2, where we can fully identify the traces of an architectural work with components such as foundation bundles, column foundations, and a wall system surrounding the North side. The average width of the architectural space is 4.8m. And this architectural ground plan is superimposed on another architectural work of the Ly Dynasty.
Changes in architectural planning lead to changes in auxiliary works to suit.
The discovery and leaking of the architectural plan of the Tran Dynasty at the Hong Garden site is a new and detailed contribution to the general understanding of the architectural process of the Tran Dynasty in the overall architectural history of the Thang Long Capital.
The wooden frames of the structures were completely destroyed, however, materials for the roofs and courtyards were found in large quantities. The architectural decoration art of the Tran Dynasty, on the one hand, inherited from the Ly Dynasty, on the other hand, developed and created new features typical of the era. That is the appearance of lemon-flower decorative bricks, lotus-shaped tiles, leaf-shaped tiles, decorative reliefs with bold, strong lines bearing the distinct mark of the Tran Dynasty.
The underlying materials of the architecture also have other characteristics that are easily distinguishable from the Ly Dynasty. Square floor tiles are generally made from clay with low refinement, mixed with many small grains of sand, the size of the tiles is smaller, on average 0.35m x 0.35m x 0.04m, used for paving floors, building wells, and sewers. Cover tiles have surface characteristics that often have curves originating from a point left by the manufacturing technique, with an average size of 0.35m x 0.17m x 0.05m (length x width x thickness) and are used to build auxiliary works of the architecture.
After 20 years of Ming domination, in 1427, the country and people of Dai Viet enjoyed peace and prosperity. The Le Dynasty (1427 - 1788), including the Early Le Dynasty and the Later Le Dynasty, had certain conditions to rebuild and build the country with the stature and awareness of the era.
The system of relics in this period at the Rose Garden site has shown that, regardless of the time, the capital Thang Long was always focused on building, consolidating, and expanding to be worthy of being the "convergence of the four directions", the political, economic, cultural, scientific and educational center of the Dai Viet state.
Not only that, looking from the relics perspective, it is clear that after 20 years of being occupied and destroyed by the Northern invaders, the ideology has changed greatly, most clearly seen in the types of architectural construction materials.
At the column foundation, the popular and very durable material of the Ly - Tran period, gravel, is completely absent, and replaced by less durable materials: pieces of bricks and tiles.
On the roof, the roofing materials and roof decorations have also changed. Familiar, gentle images are no longer seen, such as mandarin ducks, dragons, and phoenixes. They have also changed, and are no longer molded into Buddhist-influenced bodhi leaves.
In particular, another difference and change is the diversity and flexibility in the use of materials in the construction of architectural columns and foundations. During the Ly and Tran dynasties, statistics show that there were about 7 types of materials used in the construction of foundations for buildings, creating solidity and stability: bricks, tiles, gravel, clay, stone, porcelain, and fired bricks. By the early Le and the later Le dynasties, only bricks and tiles were seen, of which bricks were the main material.
Thus, the archaeological evidence from the Dai La period to the Le Trung Hung period has vividly, honestly and objectively reflected the architectural values of each period. The architectural relics in each period have their own innovations, but still inherit the achievements of previous periods. There are also some achievements in the previous period that have degraded and disappeared when entering the new period. The outstanding features of the architecture in each period are indicators for the study of architectural relics of the same period. Thereby, we can outline part of the historical process of architecture in Thang Long citadel.
CONCLUDE
1. The scope of the Rose Garden site has identified a large number of types of architectural relics from the Dai La period (7th - 9th century) to the Le Trung Hung period (17th - 18th century), relics of later periods overlapped, or cut down on relics of previous periods. In general, in the Rose Garden excavation site, the relics here have not been fully exposed or have been partially destroyed.
During the Dai La period , the architectural relics here were revealed to be local in nature and small in scope (2-row-column architecture). In addition, at the excavation site of the Rose Garden, for the first time, the relics of the citadel wall foundation were found, which were driven by wooden stakes with a high density of relics. However, it is not possible to divide into stages or link the relics within the excavation area, nor to compare them with the architectural relics of the same age in the overall Thang Long Imperial Citadel relic site.
Entering the Ly Dynasty , the exposed surface of the architectural relics was determined to be somewhat diverse in terms of type as well as architectural plan (rectangular architectural plan, circular architectural plan), besides, in the excavation area of the Rose Garden site, there was a connection and close relationship with the Ly Dynasty relics at 18 Hoang Dieu, forming a central axis extending from the architectural vestiges of the Ly Dynasty citadel foundation in the South → Spiritual architecture → Octagonal architecture and the system of other relics at 18 Hoang Dieu. Regarding the construction materials of the architectural column foundation: Clay and gravel were compacted in layers.
By the Tran Dynasty , the vestiges were almost destroyed by the later period, leaving only identifiable vestiges within the G3 pit with vestiges of the ground plan and architectural vestiges identified as two rows of columns, with a distance of 7 compartments and 2 wings. The main construction material for the column foundations was red bricks, the remaining identifiable vestiges were the lining layers at the bottom of the column foundations.
During the early Le Dynasty , the relics belonged to many different types of relics, from foundation relics, drainage ditches, wells to pond/stream relics, vegetation relics, black soil pit relics...
During this period, Thang Long Imperial Palace had a major change in construction planning with the architectural foundation being raised above the architectural foundations of the Ly Tran dynasty.
Thus, in just an area not too large compared to the vastness of Thang Long Citadel, archaeologists have found traces of many types of relics.