VietNamNet Bridge – Japanese archaeologist Nishimura Masanari who died in an accident on the way to an archaeological site on Sunday, was buried today, June 13, at Kim Lan Commune's graveyard, Gia Lam District, Ha Noi.

Vietnamese people mourn over Japanese archaeologist’s death

Japanese archaeologist Nishimura Masanari. (Photo: Dan Viet)

Kim Lan Commune is the place the archaeologist established an ancient earthenware museum. The museum displays various objects and operating methods, the result of years of tireless work by Masanari.

The village people donated many artefacts they collected to the museum.

"The archaeologist's family said Masanari loved Viet Nam, worked in Viet Nam and died here. He would be pleased if he knew what we arranged for him," said Tong Trung Tin, director of Viet Nam Institute of Archaeology.

The institute has completed a dossier to submit to the Viet Nam Institute of Social Sciences to bestow an award posthumously on Masanari for his devotion to Vietnamese archaeology.

Masanari was born in 1965 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. He first came to Viet Nam in 1990 for a project in the central province of Nghe An. He learned Vietnamese, understood Vietnamese culture and even adopted the name Ly Van Sy.

In November 1998, Nishimura discovered a piece of a mould used to cast bronze drums dating back 2300 years, the only one of its kind ever found. The object is an important piece of evidence for the research of Vietnamese bronze drums.

Both his postgraduate and doctorate theses were about Vietnamese archaeology and its ancient civilisations.

Source: VNS