Editing Bronze Age (section)

==== Vietnam ====
{{further|Dong Son culture}}
Dating to the Neolithic, the first bronze drums, called the [[Dong Son drum]]s, were uncovered in and around the [[Red River Delta]] regions of northern Vietnam and Southern China. These relate to the [[Dong Son culture]] of Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Keith Weller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rCl_02LnNVIC&q=Dong+Son+Culture+of+Vietnam&pg=PA313 |title=The Birth of Vietnam |publisher=University of California Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0520074170}}</ref>

Archaeological research in Northern Vietnam indicates an increase in rates of infectious disease following the advent of metallurgy; skeletal fragments in sites dating to the early and mid-Bronze Age evidence a greater proportion of lesions than in sites of earlier periods.<ref name="Oxenham2005">{{Cite journal |last1=Oxenham |first1=M. F. |last2=Thuy |first2=N. K. |last3=Cuong |first3=N. L. |year=2005 |title=Skeletal evidence for the emergence of infectious disease in bronze and iron age northern Vietnam |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=126 |issue=4 |pages=359–376 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20048 |pmid=15386222}}</ref> There are a few possible implications of this. One is the increased contact with bacterial and/or fungal pathogens due to increased population density and land clearing/cultivation. Another implication is decreased levels of immunocompetence in the Metal Age due to changes in diet caused by agriculture. The last implication is that there may have been an emergence of infectious diseases that evolved into a more virulent form in the metal period.<ref name="Oxenham2005" />