History - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 1001

TIMELINE
4200 BC
Cave dwellers capable of making pots inhabit caves around Laang Spean; archaeological
evidence suggests the vessels these people were making are similar to those made in
Cambodia today.
c 2000 BC
The Bronze Age Dong Son culture emerges in the Red River Delta around Hanoi. It's
renowned for its rice cultivation and the production of bronzeware, including drums and
gongs.
c AD 100
The process of Indianisation begins in the Mekong region, the religions, language, sculp-
ture and culture of India taking root through maritime contact with Cambodia.
245
The Chinese Wei emperor sends a mission to the countries of the Mekong region and is
told that a barbarous but rich country called Funan exists in the Delta region.
600
The first inscriptions are committed to stone in Cambodia in ancient Khmer, offering his-
torians the first contemporary accounts of the pre-Angkorian period other than from
Chinese sources.
802
Jayavarman II proclaims independence from Java, marking the start of the Khmer empire
of Angkor, which controls much of the Mekong region from the 10th to 13th centuries.
938
The Chinese are expelled from Vietnam after 1000 years of occupation, as Ngo Quyen
leads his people to victory in the battle of Bach Dang River, luring the Chinese ships onto
sharpened stakes.
1049
Suryavarman I annexes the Dravati kingdom of Lopburi in Thailand and widens his control
of Cambodia, stretching the empire to perhaps its greatest extent.