Thailand archaeology

After several decades of archaeologists interpreting Thailand's metal age development using top-down approaches drawn from 1980s archaeological theory, it has become evident they do not work for this region. When the metal assemblages from Ban Chiang and related sites in northeast Thailand were studied with a systematic methodology, alternative perspectives emerged for how to better interpret the resilient, peaceful prehistoric societies dating from approximately 2100 BCE-300 CE. A testable model is proposed applying "Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage" that focuses on "regional exchange systems." Exchange networks existed in the middle Mekong and Chao Phraya basins from the pre-metal period through the metal age and underpinned heterarchical political and economic systems whereby goods and valuables were exchanged among decentralized networks of communities.

การศึกษาทางโบราณคดีในบริเวณลุ่มลพบุรี - ป่าสัก นับว่ามีความสนใจศึกษากันอย่างกว้างขวางในราว ๑๐ ปีที่ผ่านมา การสำรวจแหล่งโบราณคดีเบื้องต้นของกรมศิลปากรในภูมิภาคนี้ทำให้ทราบว่ามีชุมชนสมัยก่อนประวัติศาสตร์กระจัดกระจายอยู่ทั่วไป นอกจากนี้ การเร่งรัดสร้างถนนหนทางและการเกษตรอุตสาหกรรม พบโบราณวัตถุจำนวนมหาศาล นำมาซึ่งการขุดหาของเก่าและรับซื้อโบราณวัตถุกันอย่างกว้างขวาง
แหล่งโบราณคดีจำนวนมากสูญเสียไปในช่วงเวลานี้ เท่าที่สามารถทำได้คือการเก็บรวบรวมข้อมูลที่เป็นโบราณวัตถุและสำรวจพื้นที่ที่ถูกลักลอบขุด การศึกษาอย่างเป็นระบบโดยมีวัตถุประสงค์ในการศึกษา กระทำได้น้อยมาก 
การสร้างเขื่อนกั้นแม่น้ำป่าสัก พื้นที่น้ำท่วมส่วนหนึ่งเป็นแหล่งโบราณคดี การทำงานแข่งกับเวลาเพียง  ๑ - ๒  ปี กับแหล่งโบราณคดีที่ยังไม่เคยมีการศึกษามาก่อน ย่อมเป็นเรื่องน่าเสียดายและคงต้องยอมรับการสูญเสียที่ไม่สามารถเรียกกลับคืนได้
สมมุติฐานในบทความนี้คือ  ยุคเหล็กคือจุดเริ่มต้นพัฒนาการของรัฐแรกเริ่ม [early state]  ก่อนที่จะเกิดรัฐ [state]  ขึ้นในเวลาต่อมา

This book is designed to interest both the general public and the expert, to round out and deepen the initial assumptions arising from the 2012 discoveries and reported on in an earlier publication, "The Hoards of Angkor Borei". But it is not simply an inventory, a description, a documenting of the collection of the most ancient coins discovered and acquired in Cambodia.

Its first purpose is to weave together the discoveries made over the last century on various sites and in different contexts. It attempts to interpret historically and economically the presence of local minting that imitated or reinterpreted the models and symbols that prevailed in the rest of Indian-influenced Southeast Asia.

How can the presence of Hellenized and Roman coins, originating from the Mediterranean Basin of from Indo-Greek kingdoms, be explained? How can the many medallions and coins belonging to the vast family of coins from the Indian-influenced kingdoms of Southeast Asia, particularly Pyu and Mon that thrived in what is now Myanmar and Thailand, be explained? And finally, how can the presence of coins that copy and imitate, but also reinterpret and combine in a novel way the monetary symbols cataloged to data be explained?

Digging deeper into a history that remains obscure in many respects, this work will foster or rekindle a lively debate and be of passionate interest to Cambodians wanting to become familiar with and understand their distant heritage.

Recent evidence from Kottapatnam, a coastal site on the east suggests early contacts and trade between south India and southeast Asia starting from the first millennium BC.  The site has yielded stamped ware, celedon ware and other exotic wares.  A 15th century Chinese coin was also found.

South East Asians in the early modern period (c.1450–1800) embraced technological innovations and novel ideas
that crossed their paths. The fifteenth century ushered in the collapse of large empires and the rise of local craft
industries; multi-ethnic diasporic communities developed in port cities; and standardized currencies structured
local economies. Europeans entered this world in search of luxury goods and precious metals—in two centuries
they would colonize most of the region. Although most historians explain the emergence of South East Asia’s ‘Age
of Commerce’ through external factors, indigenous documents and archaeological information from this period
offer insights on internal dynamics that contributed to region-wide transformations. Two objectives structure this
chapter: to assess the range of issues that archaeological research has raised, challenged, or refuted, and to
weave historical and archaeological threads into a series of themes that might guide future archaeological
research on the period 1450–1850.

Hills and caves in islands or along the coasts are part of the cultural seascape of the various people inhabiting or passing through the shores of southern Thailand. The social, economic or ritual relationships they have developed through time with these places have yet to be documented in maritime Southeast Asia. They also constitute archives related to maritime exchanges that archaeology has yet little exploited. This article presents the preliminary results of what is aimed to become a community-based archaeological and ethnographic research on the maritime heritage landscape in the Krabi Province along the Lanta Bay with a focus on caves and rock art. It documents several newly-discovered rock art sites and explores the potential for research on the relationships that local groups, in particular maritime groups like the Urak Lawoi sea nomads, entertain or not, with these caves.

Regarding the jade and jade-like artefacts unearthed from Khao Sam Kaeo, new research has explored the use of different raw materials and relations with inter-regional trade networks. Geochemical analysis offers a way to identify the geological sources of the stone materials, potentially involving long-distance movements. In conjunction with those findings, studies of workshop debris provide information about how the artefacts were produced and how the evident crafting styles may have been linked across the regions of Mainland and Island Southeast Asia.

Local craft production is evident in workshop debris at the site. The unearthed artefacts include complete objects and related worked fragments such as drilled-out cores, cut square blanks, and small cut fragments. Most of these materials were used for manufacturing ornaments such as the lingling-o penannular earrings, the double animal-headed ear pendants, bracelets, and pendants. In order to learn the geological sources of the green stones used to make these ornaments at Khao Sam Kaeo, 28 artefacts were examined through a series of non-invasive analyses by a low-vacuum scanning electron microscope (LVSEM) equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray (EDS) spectrometer. The results show those objects and worked fragments can be grouped into three major categories of nephrite jade (17 samples), green mica (8 samples), and quartzite (2 samples). The geological sources included nephrite from Taiwan, mica from the Philippines, and quartzite from an unknown source. Among 17 specimens of nephrite, 12 of them are comparable to the Fengtian nephrite source in Eastern Taiwan. However, another 5 nephrite specimens were too weathered to analyze for making a final conclusion of their geological source. In addition to the nephrite from Taiwan, some of the artefacts were made of mica similar in chemistry to that from Mindoro Island in the Philippines. Khao Sam Keo became the first prehistoric jewellery workshop in Southeast Asia with a significant amount of mica-ornament production. Moreover, quartzite was used to produce a bracelet here.

This study indicates that the stone jewellery production at Khao Sam Kaeo can be situated in a larger regional network or perhaps a number of such networks. Multiple overseas sources are evident in the raw materials. Additionally, the similar production method and ornament style of jade and mica link these findings to the contemporaneous traditions as documented at production sites distributed all around the South China Sea, such as in Southern Taiwan, the Philippines, and Southern Vietnam.

Based on the new findings, two hypotheses are developed about the origins of the responsible craftsmen and production techniques. The first hypothesis proposes different backgrounds in origin or training for the craftsmen of jade versus the craftsmen of mica objects. Each group owned the raw materials or could access the raw material. For nephrite, perhaps a group of specialised craftsmen from Eastern Taiwan, Southern Vietnam, or the Philippines migrated into Khao Sam  Kaeo. The second hypothesis proposes that local craftsmen at Khao Sam Kaeo knew the necessary  skills for nephrite and mica production from other regions, but several points remain uncertain,  such as how the skills were learned and how people obtained the raw materials from overseas. According to the archaeological findings at Khao Sam Kaeo, the site was strongly connected in extensive maritime trade networks, linking with Taiwan, the Philippines, Borneo, coastal Southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and beyond at approximately 400 through 100 BC. Future  studies will be needed to understand how those overseas raw materials, techniques, and perhaps craftsmen reached to Khao Sam Kaeo.

The interlocking of the maritime basin network that took place with the development of the
Maritime Silk Roads by the late first millennium bc led to major cultural transfers. This
research investigates Southeast Asia’s cultural integration and takes into consideration
what I call a South China Sea network culture, a result of long-established and extensive
connectivity of its populations. The assumption is that this cultural matrix also laid the
ground for socio-political practices hypothesized to be at the core of identity building and
cultural transfers. These issues are investigated through the technological analysis of hybrid
ornament industries in a recently excavated early city-port of the South China Sea which
developed with the Maritime Silk Roads that thrived from the fourth to the first centuries
bc. This enclosed cosmopolitan settlement hosting populations from various Asian horizons
was structured by socio-professional quarters. This node concentrated various craft centres
where artisans of different origins made culturally hybrid products with what were then
the most advanced technologies. The chronological sequence allows characterization of the
evolution of these industries along with the socio-political strategies which they may have
served and how otherness was handled in the construction of social identity.

The 1950s and 1960s constitute a key " moment " in the history of the looting of archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. The emergence in the region at that time of a commodity market for antiquities such as pottery triggered a wave of illicit excavation of archaeological sites. Simultaneous with the trafficking of antiquities out of the Philippines and Thailand into the hands of private collectors and museums in the West during this period and subsequent decades a thriving domestic antiquities market developed. It is argued here that the valorization of antiquities as national heritage, rather than inhibiting acquisition by citizen collectors, facilitated a process wherein collecting became a form of cultural capital accumulation. It is inaccurate to categorize Thailand and the Philippines simply as " source " or " supply " nodes in the global antiquities trade. This paper aims for a more nuanced approach to the geoeconomics of antiquities consumption.

The occupation area at Khao Sam Kaeo was delimited by the walls. No structures other than the hydraulic ones have been found outside the boundary walls. Inhabitants built structures on piles and on terraces set on plateaux and the gentle slopes of the four hills. The bases of the hills and the river banks were also occupied. Occupied zones are characterised by domestic or craft structures of small dimensions (terraces, floors, wells, low walls, drains, and holes left by posts) and by monumental structures (pathways with drains and terraces). The network of habitations on piles and terraces was dense and is characterised by accumulations of terraces and drains.
All craft activities (iron, copper-base alloy, and hard stones) expanded both on the plateaux and at the bases of the hills, except that the lapidary glass, stone, and glass-bracelet craft centres have been identified exclusively in the lower parts of Valley 1 and along the river. The western and low slopes of Hill 2 may to have held a cemetery, which we did not excavate but which yielded a rich small-material assemblage (hard stone ornaments, glass, and gold) and thick jars.
Burial deposits at Khao Sam Kaeo were found associated with individual habitation areas, be they on hills or in lowland areas. It is in this latter environment that most funerary deposits seem to concentrate. As mentioned above, the western part of Hill 2 may have corresponded to a cemetery. The funerary mode consists of pots found empty or containing ashes (and in one instance cremated bones of two children), with which ornaments were sometimes associated

The discovery and excavation in the 1960s through to the mid 1970s of several prehistoric sites in north and northeastern Thailand, the best known being the World Heritage site of Ban Chiang, were a major breakthrough in Southeast Asian archaeology. Evidence of an autonomous Bronze Age tradition contradicted colonial scholarship’s view of Southeast Asia as a cultural backwater that owed its advancement to imports from India and China. Subsequently, based on a dating later rejected, Ban Chiang was at the center of an international debate about the beginning of world metallurgy. Focus on chronological and typological issues has obscured the fact that American archaeologists surveyed and excavated sites in Northeast Thailand at the time when the region was thoroughly militarized to provide frontline facilities for the Vietnam War. This article examines the production of American archaeological knowledge on Southeast Asian prehistory in relation to the Cold War politics, and more specifically of Thailand’s neocolonial dependence on the United States.

Archaeology of Domestication

Jan Turek -  Letní semestr 2021/2022, rozsah (2/0)
The emergence of the Neolithic introduced one of the most fundamental turning points in the history of humankind. People left this imaginary Eden of symbiosis with animal species to start their new role of stewards and destroyers of the nature. In this way humans completed their departure from nature into the world of their own culture and civilization. With a sedentary life and a newly acquired knowledge of the production and reproduction of their food sources, people set off to the path to their overpopulation and ruling over the entire planet and after more than 12,000 years to continue beyond its gravity. However, not everything was positive on this departure from the paradise, and soon people also tasted the bitter taste of the forbidden fruit that the first farmers seized. Along with the change of diet a general deterioration in the health of the Neolithic population occurred and we can even talk about the first civilisation diseases.
The course is suitable for students of archaeology, social and cultural anthropology, human ecology, history and other social sciences. It includes an outline of the current discussion on the conditions, methods and evidence of the emergence of cereal agriculture in the Western Asia. In addition to archaeological evidence of changes in the subsistence strategy, changes in the symbolic systems, cosmology and religion of the first agricultural civilizations, as well as demographic and social aspects of neolithisation, will be taken into account. The process of domestication will be investigated in various climatic-ecological contexts with emphasis on explanation of local variability in diversification of agricultural strategies. The topic also includes the spread of the Neolithic way of life outside the Neolithic epicentre, i.e. to the northwest of Asia Minor, the Balkans, Europe and North Africa. Subsequent cultural development and population cultural variability of newly domesticated areas will also be discussed. Finally, we compare the development in Western Asia and Europe to the domestication processes in other parts of the world, such as East/Southeast Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Australia and Polynesia, Americas, Sahel and South Africa. This worldwide review of early sedentary populations and variability of domestication strategies provides a basic reference of current research in the field of archaeology, anthropology and prehistoric human ecology.

Works of Buddhist art and architecture, in addition to having cultic use and artistic value, also enjoy prominence in the national heritage of several Asian countries regardless of the following Buddhism presently enjoys in each. While rooted in the millenary process of the formation of national cultures, this prominence is more immediately the outcome of archaeological investigations, architectural restorations, and museum collections that were initiated in the late 19th century by colonial officials, and royal commissioners in independent Siam and Japan, and continued by postcolonial governments, often with international support. The examination of Buddhist art and architecture as vehicles of national memory-making can be framed conceptually by the dialectical tension between their cult value as continuing foci of devotion and their exhibition value as evidence of cultural achievement. Four aspects of this productive tension are emphasized: the foundational tension in Buddhism between the doctrine of impermanence and the cult of relics; the tension between Buddhist monuments as elements of the diffuse sacred landscape and, conversely, of individual countries' historical landscape; the tension between the place and reception of buddha images in the temple and, instead, in the museum; and finally, the tension between the traditional pious care for Buddhist monuments and their modern, scientific conservation. Owing to these productive tensions, works of Buddhist art and architecture continue to generate spiritual, cultural, and social meanings-in particular identitarian and mnemonic associations-even though in multiethnic and multireligious societies, these meanings are not uncontested.

In this note I call attention to some evidence in the indigenous literature of the people of the Khorat Plateau that might throw some additional light on the ancient towns and cities known archaeologically. While I consider some specific evidence from two legends from the region, I do so only to indicate what information might be derived from legendary sources rather than to present the distillation of a long period of research. I conclude this note with a few suggestions regarding the possible interpretation of the evidence on the ancient sites of northeastern Thailand.

In this note I call attention to some evidence in the indigenous literature of the people of the Khorat Plateau that might throw some additional light on the ancient towns and cities known archaeologically. While I consider some specific evidence from two legends from the region, I do so only to indicate what information might be derived from legendary sources rather than to present the distillation of a long period of research. I conclude this note with a few suggestions regarding the possible interpretation of the evidence on the ancient sites of northeastern Thailand.

This article geo-locates for the first time the Tha Morat Temple Cave, described by the Metropolitan Museum of Art as one of the most important for Buddhist sculpture in SE Asia.  The cave is described, including its legendary history dating back over 1000 years, its relations to Sri (or Si) Thep, a nearby ruined city,  and its association with Jim Thompson, the "Silk King of Thailand."  Thompson discovered the cave in 1961-2 and concluded that some Buddha heads that he had previously acquired had been looted from the cave, apparently by the Thai police and army.  The fate of these heads is described.  Never before published letters of Thompson related to the cave are described and analyzed.  A possible second Buddha cave nearby, still undiscovered, is also discussed.

The interlocking of the maritime basin network that took place with the development of the Maritime Silk Roads by the late first millennium bc led to major cultural transfers. This research investigates Southeast Asia's cultural integration and takes into consideration what I call a South China Sea network culture, a result of long-established and extensive connectivity of its populations. The assumption is that this cultural matrix also laid the ground for socio-political practices hypothesized to be at the core of identity building and cultural transfers. These issues are investigated through the technological analysis of hybrid ornament industries in a recently excavated early city-port of the South China Sea which developed with the Maritime Silk Roads that thrived from the fourth to the first centuries bc. This enclosed cosmopolitan settlement hosting populations from various Asian horizons was structured by socio-professional quarters. This node concentrated various craft ...

Port-cities that developed with the Maritime Silk Roads can be regarded as active agents of what are now considered previous globalisations. This book is about Khao Sam Kaeo, one of those nodes which emerged along the eastern coast of the Thai-Malay Peninsula when Southeast Asia integrated the maritime Silk Roads (see general Map 1 peninsula). Its excavation from 2005 to 2009 (see general Map 2 site) and the multidisciplinary research conducted on its materials, shed light on what I argue to be the earliest port-city identified so far in the South China Sea, which has also been a seat for many cultural experimentations. This enclosed settlement, the earliest identified so far in this maritime basin, whose cosmopolitan configuration is reflected both by its urbanism and industries, thrived from the 4th to the 1st c. BC. It developed at a time when circumnavigation around the Peninsula was probably not yet taking place and transisthmian routes in this part of the Kra Isthmus were predominantly used, passing through series of river valleys, linking the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. At the exit of transpeninsular routes, this node hosted foreign communities, staying within quarters materialised by embankments, received commodities and cultural elements; it also produced hybrid cultural products that were redistributed from one basin to the other, thus contributing to the cultural process. Khao Sam Kaeo prefigured some of the pre-modern trading societies and their entrepôts such as the Malays in Srivijaya and in Melaka, the Acehenese in Aceh in Sumatra, the Makassarese and Makasar in Sulawesi and Sulu Sultanate of the Philippines. The multi-ethnic settlement of Khao Sam Kaeo hosted hybrid industries associating artisans, technologies and styles of various Asian horizons producing goods feeding different networks and serving different socio-political strategies of its actors. Some may correspond to a trans-ethnic South China Sea network culture shared by communities located along the fringe of the South China Sea. The elaboration of a shared cultural matrix results from an intensive as well as an extensive connectivity within the South China Sea, probably from the Neolithic. This cultural matrix was driven by shared common socio-political practices that perpetuated even when, evolving in time, it began to adapt foreign vocabulary coming from furtheraway " lands". It is this maritime network cultural matrix and its interplay with new foreign elements brought in with the maritime Silk Roads that this volume proposes to explore in the light of this settlement and the industries it hosted. In total, all the research conducted and presented here shed new light on some of the economic and socio-political process at the core of one previous integrations that the followed the setting of the maritime Silk Road.

- ABSTRACT :
This article analyses the walled defensive system of the Khmer city centre of Vimaya-pura (modern Phimai, Thailand) to evaluate the theoretical level of military effectivity of both the walls and the moats against potential attackers, considering their technical characteristics and the enemy's weapons. We also study the layout of the urban en-ceinte, the constructive material, the gateways as well as weakness and strengths of the stronghold and the symbolic, monumental and ornamental functions in the overall role of the walls. Based on comparisons with similar cases, as well as in situ observations of the archaeological remains and a bibliographical research, our study reveals that the stonewalls were not designed primarily to resist military attacks. Instead, the army, the moat, and possibly the embankments and/or palisades would have been the first lines of defence of the city.

The commentary at http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=87395  shows why the Higham et al proposed chronology and the dating for Ban Chiang in particular at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0137542 should not be accepted pro forma or at face value

20 octobre 2021 (14h-17h) (salle Océanie MISHA, Strasbourg)
1er intervenant : « Rites de passages ? rites de messages ? L’entrée dans la vie religieuse bouddhiste : entre vies et morts », conférence en ligne de Louis Gabaude, orientaliste, membre honoraire de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, depuis Chiang Mai, Thaïlande.
2e intervenant : « Éventail de pratiques funéraires en Asie du Sud-Est : exemples préhistoriques de Thaïlande et du Cambodge », conférence de Valéry Zeitoun, paléoanthropologue, directeur de recherche CNRS, membre du laboratoire CR2P, UMR 7207 CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Université.

Séminaire d'anthropologie diachronique (ethnologie et archéologie), commun à l'université de Strasbourg et à l'université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3 ; séminaire d’enseignement et de recherche de niveau doctorat et master (ouvert aux étudiants de licence et au public cultivé sur acceptation des organisateurs).

sous la direction de Pierre Le Roux (ethnologue, université de Strasbourg), Luc Jallot (archéologue, université Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3) et Philippe Lefranc (archéologue, université de Strasbourg)

Thème de l’année 2021-2022 : « Métamorphoses : pratiques funéraires et rites de passage »

Dédié à Madeleine Colani (ethnologue et archéologue, née à Strasbourg, 1866-1943)

20 octobre 2021 (14h-17h) en présentiel, salle Océanie de la Maison interuniversitaire des sciences de l'Homme en Alsace (MISHA), université de Strasbourg (accès libre dans la limite des places disponibles limitées à 50) et simultanément en distanciel via BBB salon séminaire d’anthropologie diachronique sous le lien https://bbb.unistra.fr/b/pie-ecu-c4r-qjf

Comité d’organisation : Florent Jodry (INRAP), Matthieu Michler (INRAP), Bernard Moizo (IRD), Bernard Sellato (CNRS), Valéry Zeitoun (CNRS).

Laboratoire SAGE (UMR 7363 CNRS & univ. de Strasbourg), labex ASM (UMR 5140 CNRS & univ. Paul Valéry-Montpellier 3), et laboratoire ARCHIMEDE (UMR 7044 CNRS & univ. De Strasbourg).

บทคัดย่อภาษาไทย
บทความ “รูปแบบสถาปัตยกรรมพระศรีรัตนมหาธาตุอยุธยาภายหลังการบูรณปฏิสังขรณ์ในสมัยสมเด็จพระเจ้าปราสาททอง” เป็นการศึกษาสันนิษฐานรูปแบบทางสถาปัตยกรรมองค์พระศรีรัตนมหาธาตุ ซึ่งเรือนยอดเดิมได้พังทลายลงมาตั้งแต่รัชกาลสมเด็จพระเจ้าทรงธรรม ในปีพ.ศ. 2153 และได้รับการบูรณปฏิสังขรณ์ใหม่ในสมัยสมเด็จพระเจ้าปราสาททอง ในปี พ.ศ. 2176 ซึ่งมีการแก้ไขทรวดทรงของพระมหาธาตุให้สูงเพรียวขึ้นกว่าเดิม สำหรับนพศูลใช้ของเดิม นอกจากนี้ ยังมีการก่ออิฐเสริมเป็นมุขอีก 3 ด้านและมีการก่อสร้างสถูปทรงปรางค์บนสันหลังคามุขทิศทั้ง 4 ด้าน บุเรือนยอดด้วยทองจังโกและปิดทองรวมเป็นพระปรางค์ 5 ยอดปิดทองดังกล่าวถึงในเอกสารคณะทูตลังกาที่เข้ามาเยี่ยมเยือนในรัชกาลสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัวบรมโกศ นอกจากนี้ยังศึกษาสถาปัตยกรรมอื่นๆ ที่อยู่ภายในผังบริเวณที่ล้อมรอบด้วยระเบียงคด อาทิ พระปรางค์มุม พระเจดีย์บริวาร พระมณฑปบริวาร และพระเจดีย์มุมด้วย

English Abstract
“Phra Sri Rattana Mahathadu Ayudhaya after the Restoration in the Reign of King Prasat Thong” is the study about consumption of architectural forms of the Prang whose top collapsed in the reign of King Song Tham in 1610 and was restored in the reign of King Prasat Thong  in 1633. The Prang became taller with the old tier. The new construction was done at the three sides. There was also the construction of stupas on all four sides of the roof top, covered by gold leaf. Hence, there were five Prangs with golden top, as mentioned in historical document of the ambassadors from Lanka in the reign of King Borom Koat. Other architectural components were also studied, consisting of the gallery, Prangs at the corners, surrounding Chedis, surrounding Mondops, and Chedis at the corners.

The article investigates long-distance interactions between the Philippines and the Thai-Malay Peninsula during the middle of the first millennium BC to the early first centuries AD. Based on a review of archaeological evidence (including pottery, glass, stone and gold ornaments), the article highlights links between the central Philippines and Palawan, and the Upper Thay-Malay Peninsula (...). Such cultural exchanges may have been facilitated by small groups of mobile middlemen from the Philippines. The article also briefly examines the connections with Taiwn and suggests that Taiwan wasnot directly involved in the South China Sea sphere of exchange.

Author: Surapol Natapintu. Surapol Natapintu 2007: 'Recent Involvement of Elderly People and Children in an Archaeological Site in Central Thailand,' in From Concepts of the Past to Practical Strategies: The Teaching of Archaeological Field Techniques. Peter Ucko, Editor-in-Chief, Qin Ling and Jane Hubert Editors. Commissioning Editor and General Editor: Sajid Rizvi. ISBN 9781872843704. London: Saffron 2007.  This paper presents the recent experience of community involvement in archaeological work at the small village of Ban Pong Manao in the Province of Lopburi, Central Thailand (Natapintu 2004). The archaeological site is located in the grounds of the village temple named Wat (temple) Pong Manao. In 2000, the author was invited to visit the site to advise the local Subdistrict Administration Office regarding the development of the archaeological site into a tourist attraction. The site had been looted earlier that year; a group of men from other districts of the Province arrived at the village of Ban Pong Manao and asked the local villagers if there were any areas where ancient objects had been dug up. When they were told that some ‘old bones and pottery’ had been found a few years ago in the temple grounds while digging pits for construction of concrete foundations of the new temple building, the group offered to donate 10,000 baht (about 250 US dollars) to the temple, in exchange for permission to dig certain parts of the area for a few days...Follow links for further info on this book.

Southeast Asia is not traditionally known as an area rich in rock art, but the region is in fact home to at least 450 rock art sites dating from the prehistoric through modern periods. This article summarizes the main styles, discoveries, and issues typifying Mainland Southeast Asian rock art.

Over the last 30 years many regions of the world have successfully debated, encouraged and enacted sets of ethical principles that provide a roadmap for ethically investigating the past and managing cultural heritage. The ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI) have engaged in many cultural, arts, and conservation projects, but have not defined a framework or guidelines for ethical practice in Southeast Asian Studies. Whilst some Southeast Asian nations have developed local policies for approaching the past and cultural heritage, there is a lack of shared regional and ethical guidelines for both domestic and foreign researchers. A shared set of ethical principles is important for several reasons. First, through its diversity Southeast Asian nations have a high degree of shared heritage. Second, many of the experts who work on the Southeast Asian past work across borders,-collaborating with researchers and communities in several different countries. A shared regional framework would assist researchers. Third, a standardise ethical guidelines will help lessen tensions between internal and external institutions and nations. Issues such as access and control of research information, the relationship between archaeology and art crime, working with local communities, protocols around the treatment of human remains, valuation and transport of archaeological and materials, relationship between heritage and social media, the co-opting of heritage for nationalistic purposes and the destruction of heritage due to theft and ever increasing urban development make a discussion around ethical practices not only necessary but extremely urgent. We strongly encourage papers founded in the study of the Southeast Asian past from disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, economics, history, heritage, sociology, and museum studies. We seek a diverse range of views and voices from regional perspectives and a diverse range of cultural, theoretical and pragmatic perspectives. Southeast Asia has a rich and varied past, informed today by its diverse cultural heritage. It is vital that we act now to ensure the preservation of that cultural heritage, to include different voices and perspectives. The aim of this session is to bring together a diverse range of perspectives and expertise to provide a positive roadmap for ethical research into Southeast Asia's shared heritage and history.

Southeast Asia is not traditionally known as an area rich in rock art, but the region is in fact home to at least 450 rock art sites dating from the prehistoric through modern periods. This article summarizes the main styles, discoveries, and issues typifying Mainland Southeast Asian rock art.