Luy Lau

The old chronicles say

The Han thu lists ten districts for Giao Chi commandery, among them familiar names such as Me Linh, Chu Dien, Long Bien and Luy Lau. Of Luy Lau in particular, a lost geography, the Giao Chau ngoai vuc ky, quoted in the Thuy kinh chu, records that the district was originally the seat of Giao Chi commandery. That line is not the Han thu's: the Giao Chau ngoai vuc ky is a book about the land of Giao Chau written around the fourth century, surviving only because later writers quoted it.¹²

Archaeology finds

At the end of 2024, an English-language bulletin of the Vietnam News Agency reported an excavation at an ancient citadel in Bac Ninh — the bulletin calls it the ancient citadel of Luy Lau — that recovered more than 2,300 fragments of moulds for casting bronze drums, among them an outer mould for a drum face with its decoration complete. But that is a news report, not an archaeological report, and it gives no date for the mould fragments. Linking a citadel still being dug to the Luy Lau district that the old books call the seat of Giao Chi commandery is a job for an archaeological report, not for a name in a news bulletin.³