Battle of Bạch Đằng, Vietnam
Kublai Khan's Forgotten Naval Invasion
Team Members: Randall J. Sasaki, Jun Kimura, Le Lien Thi, Ph.D., Vu The Long, Ph.D., George Belcher, Mark Staniforth, Ph.D., James P. Delgado, Ph.D., Claude Duthuit, Charlotte Pham, Nguyen Thi Mai Huong.
Participating Institutions: Institute of Archaeology, Vietnam, Vietnam History Academy, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology Program, Flinders University, Ecole Francaise d’Extrem Orient
Location: Yen Hung district (in Quảng Ninh province) and Thuy Nguyen (in Hai Phong), Vietnam
Project Initiation: 2008
Period: AD 1288
"I sat on the roof of the boat, pictured to myself a group of bamboo rafts flowing smoothly on these little waves, charged with charcoal and dry grass, innumerable in an ever-growing number...suddenly, the dry grass caught fire from the charcoal. It flared, burned into flames. The rafts got close to huge boats, the fire burned the oars, the masts, the ropes were torn, the enemies in disarray, a boat striking against another one, the back boats clashing against the front boats, stakes piercing the boat-sides with sharp noises. The enemies in turmoil jumped into water filled with corpses floating on a river which is turning red with blood. Since the past the Bạch Đằng has been red with blood."
- Lê Năng Hiển, Ba chiến thắng Bạch Đằng Giang
(Three Victories on the Bach Dang River), 2003
Detail of a mural depicting the Battle of Bạch Đằng by Lê Năng Hiển. Hanoi History Museum, 2008. Photo by Jim Delgado.
Jun Kimura and Randall Sasaki measure stakes from the Bach Dang site that are now displayed in the Military History Museum in Hanoi, 2008. Photo by George Belcher.