Ban Chiang, Northeast Thailand, volumes 2A and 2B: a review essay

Joyce C White and Elizabeth G Hamilton's Ban Chiang, Northeast Thailand volumes 2A (2018) and 2B (2019) are the first two of four projected volumes reporting on the origins, timing, and social impact of metallurgy in Southeast Asia with particular reference to the site of Ban Chiang in Northeast Thailand. Ban Chiang is a village located in the northern reaches of the Khorat Plateau in Thailand. In the late 1960s, lavishly painted prehistoric pottery vessels came to the attention of the villagers at the same time as a nearby base was occupied by the American military during the war in Vietnam and Laos. In the first two chapters of volume 2A, White reiterates the contents of Higham's summary on the nineteenth century identification of prehistoric copper-base metallurgy in Southeast Asia following the establishment of French colonial government over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (Higham 1996:17-28). This is the background to the pioneer fieldwork in Northeast Thailand that led to the excavation of Nok Tha and Ban Chiang.

Английский

Asian Perspectives. – 2020. – Vol. 59, № 1. – P. 208–223.