Two early Palaeolithic hand axes found in An Khe town, in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.
The artefacts were found in several excavations carried out by Vietnamese and Russian archaeologists since June 2014 on 20 locations around An Khe Town.
This was described as a breakthrough discovery with traces of homo erectus or upright man, including fossils and more than 200 stone tools such as choppers, hand axes and picks.
Director of Vietnam's Institute of Archaeology, Nguyen Giang Hai, confirmed that this was the biggest and most important archaeological discovery in South East Asia.
"We've proposed to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to recognise these artefacts special national historical artefacts," Hai said. "And we will carry out more excavations and expand the search to more locations in March 2017."
Doctor Ngo The Phong from the Vietnam History Museum said he was very moved to hear this announcement.
"We have few artefacts from the Stone Age so far so these findings are valuable," Phong said. "However, we've only found tools so far, I hope we can find more traces of human and animal remains in the coming excavations."
