From the 2nd century ce to the 19th century, the people of the fertile estuary of the great Mekong River created treasures of art, architecture, religion and accomplished feats of water engineering that are coming to light through Vietnam’s vigorous and well-funded archaeological research programmes. The large wooden, stilted houses of Oc Eo, the early Venice of the maritime routes of the East in the earliest centuries of the first millennium, drew in ships with precious cargoes from Rome, India and China to trade while waiting for the change of the monsoon wind to continue their voyages. The Chinese annals record that the early polity they called ‘Funan’ ruled 1,000 km of coastline along the shipping route. (Art History/Social & Dynastic History/Archaeology)