Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T01:18:08.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A prehistoric copper-production centre in central Thailand: its dating and wider implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2020

Thomas F.G. Higham ,
Andrew D. Weiss ,
Charles F.W. Higham ,
Christopher Bronk Ramsey ,
Jade d'Alpoim Guedes ,
Sydney Hanson ,
Steven A. Weber ,
Fiorella Rispoli ,
Roberto Ciarla  and
Thomas O. Pryce Open the ORCID record for Thomas O. Pryce [Opens in a new window]
...Show all authors
Thomas F.G. Higham
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, UK
Andrew D. Weiss
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, USA
Charles F.W. Higham*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago, New Zealand
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, UK
Jade d'Alpoim Guedes
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography & Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego, USA
Sydney Hanson
Affiliation:
Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, Olympia, USA
Steven A. Weber
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver, USA
Fiorella Rispoli
Affiliation:
International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Rome, Italy
Roberto Ciarla
Affiliation:
International Association of Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Rome, Italy
Thomas O. Pryce
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Préhistoire et Technologie, Paris, France
Vincent C. Pigott*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, USA
*
* Authors for correspondence: ✉ [email protected] & [email protected]
* Authors for correspondence: ✉ [email protected] & [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand is one of four known prehistoric loci of copper mining, smelting and casting in Southeast Asia. Many radiocarbon determinations from bronze-consumption sites in north-east Thailand date the earliest copper-base metallurgy there in the late second millennium BC. By applying kernel density estimation analysis to approximately 100 new AMS radiocarbon dates, the authors conclude that the valley's first Neolithic millet farmers had settled there by c. 2000 BC, and initial copper mining and rudimentary smelting began in the late second millennium BC. This overlaps with the established dates for Southeast Asian metal-consumption sites, and provides an important new insight into the development of metallurgy in central Thailand and beyond.

Keywords

Southeast AsiaThailandNeolithicBronze Agecopper-base metallurgykernel density estimate modelling
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 376 , August 2020 , pp. 948 - 965
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bayliss, A., Bronk Ramsey, C., van der Plicht, J. & Whittle, A.. 2007. Bradshaw, Bayes: towards a timetable for the Neolithic. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17: 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774307000145CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, F., Higham, T.F.G. & Bronk Ramsey, C.. 2010. Pre-screening techniques for identification of samples suitable for radiocarbon dating of poorly preserved bones. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 855–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.11.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200033865CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2017. Methods of summarizing radiocarbon datasets. Radiocarbon 59: 1809–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2017.108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cadet, M. et al. 2019. Lao's central role in Southeast Asian copper exchange networks: a multi-method study of bronzes from the Vilabouly Complex. Journal of Archaeological Science 109: 104988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2019.104988CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cawte, H. 2012. The copper base industry, in Higham, C.F.W. & Kijngam, A. (ed.) The excavation of Ban Non Wat part 3: the Bronze Age: 451–75. Bangkok: Fine Arts Department.Google Scholar
Chernykh, E.N. 1992. Ancient metallurgy in the USSR: the Early Metal Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chernykh, E.N. & Kuzminykh, S.V.. 1989. Ancient metallurgy in Northern Eurasia: the Seyma-Turbino phenomenon. Moscow: Nauka (in Russian).Google Scholar
Chiou-Peng, T. 2018. Early copper-base metals in western Yunnan, in Linduff, K.M. & Rubinson, K.S. (ed.) How objects tell stories: essays in honor of Emma C. Bunker (Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology 1): 153–72. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Ciarla, R. 2007a. Rethinking Yuanlongpo: the case for technological links between the Lingnan (PRC) and central Thailand in the Bronze Age. East and West 57: 305–28.Google Scholar
Ciarla, R. 2007b. A preliminary report of Lo.R.A.P archaeological excavations at prehistoric Khao Sai On, Lopburi Province, central Thailand. East and West 57: 395–401.Google Scholar
Ciarla, R. 2008. The Thai-Italian ‘Lopburi Regional Archaeological Project’ excavation at Khao Sai On-Noen Din 2008: preliminary report. East and West 58: 313–36.Google Scholar
Ciarla, R. 2013. Southern China-Mainland Southeast Asia cultural and technological interactions between the late 2nd and the early 1st millennium BCE: the southward dispersion of copper-base metallurgy (volume I). Unpublished PhD dissertation, Università Ca’ Foscari (in Italian).Google Scholar
Ciarla, R., Rispoli, F. & Yukongdi, P.. 2017. Shell personal ornaments craft at the site of Tha Kae, Lopburi Province, central Thailand: tracing the southward dispersal of the drilling technique. Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology 41: 30–65. https://doi.org/10.7152/jipa.v41i0.15011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d'Alpoim Guedes, J., Hanson, S., Lertcharnrit, T., Weiss, A.D., Pigott, V.C., Higham, C.F.W., Higham, T.F.G. & Weber, S.A.. 2020. Three thousand years of farming strategies in central Thailand. Antiquity 94: 966–82. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dee, M. & Ramsey, C. Bronk. 2000. Refinement of graphite target production at ORAU. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172: 449–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-583X(00)00337-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. 2011. The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia: new insight on social change from Ban Non Wat. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21: 365–89. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774311000424CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. & Higham, T.F.G.. 2009. A new chronological framework for prehistoric Southeast Asia, based on a Bayesian model from Ban Non Wat. Antiquity 82: 125–44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00098136CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W., Ciarla, R., Higham, T.F.G., Douka, K., Kijngam, A. & Rispoli, F.. 2011. The establishment of the Bronze Age in Southeast Asia. Journal of World Prehistory 24: 227–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-011-9054-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W., Higham, T.F.G. & Douka, K.. 2014. The chronology and status of Non Nok Tha, northeast Thailand. Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology 34: 61–75. https://doi.org/10.7152/jipa.v34i0.14719CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C.F.W., Douka, K. & Higham, T.F.G.. 2015. A new chronology for the Bronze Age of northeastern Thailand and its implications for Southeast Asian prehistory. PLoS ONE 10: e0137542. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137542CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S. & Ramsey, C. Bronk. 2012. Development and application of the trapezoidal model for archaeological chronologies. Radiocarbon 54: 107–22. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i1.12397CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, K.S. & Min, R.. 2014. The site of Haimenkou: new research on the chronology of the Early Bronze Age in Yunnan, in Hein, A. (ed.) The ‘crescent-shaped cultural communication belt’: Tong Enzheng's model in retrospect (British Archaeological Reports International series 2679): 123–32. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Marchenko, Z.V., Svyatko, S.V., Molodin, S.I., Grishin, A.E. & Rykun, M.P.. 2017. Radiocarbon chronology of complexes with Seima-Turbino type 1 objects (Bronze Age) in south-western Siberia. Radiocarbon 59: 1381–97. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2017.24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Natapintu, S. 1988. Current research on ancient copper-base metallurgy in Thailand, in Charoenwongsa, P. & Bronson, B. (ed.) Prehistoric studies: the Stone and Metal Ages in Thailand: 107–24. Bangkok: Amarin.Google Scholar
Pigott, V.C. 2018. The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), the Seima-Turbino Horizon and a possible eastward transmission of tin-bronze technology in later third and early second millennium BCE Inner Asia, in Linduff, K.M. & Rubinson, K.S. (ed.) How objects tell stories: essays in honour of Emma C. Bunker (Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology I): 191–221. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Pigott, V.C. 2019. Prehistoric copper mining and smelting in Southeast Asia: evidence from Thailand and Laos, in White, J.C. & Hamilton, E.G. (ed.) Ban Chiang, northeast Thailand, volume 2C: the metal remains in regional context: 5–56. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Pigott, V.C. & Ciarla, R.. 2007. On the origins of metallurgy in prehistoric Southeast Asia: the view from Thailand, in Niece, S. La, Hook, D. & Craddock, P. (ed.) Metals and mines: studies in archaeometallurgy: 76–88. London: Archetype & the British Museum.Google Scholar
Pigott, V.C. & Weisgerber, G.. 1998. Mining archaeology in geological context: the prehistoric copper mining complex at Phu Lon, Nong Khai Province, northeast Thailand. Der Anschnitt 8: 135–62.Google Scholar
Pigott, V.C., Weiss, A.D. & Natapintu, S.. 1997. The archaeology of copper production: excavations in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley, central Thailand, in Ciarla, R. & Rispoli, F. (ed.) South-East Asian archaeology 1992: proceedings of the Fourth International Conference of the European Association of South-East Asian Archaeologists, Rome, 28th September–4th October 1992 (Serie Orientale Roma 77): 119–57. Rome: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente.Google Scholar
Pryce, T.O. 2014. Metallurgy in Southeast Asia, in Selin, H. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-Western cultures: 1–17. Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10178-1Google Scholar
Pryce, T.O. 2019. Initiating discourse on the (multi?) directionality of the Mainland Southeast Asian Bronze Age transition, in Choi, E.J.Y. & Park, J.S. (ed.) Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Beginnings of the Use of Metals and Alloys: 160–75. Seoul: The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials.Google Scholar
Pryce, T.O. & Cadet, M.. 2018. Ancient copper-base metallurgy in the Lao PDR, in Patole-Edoumba, E. & Demeter, F. (ed.) Pà Hang: la montagne habitée. 100000 ans d'histoire de la biodiversité et de l'occupation humaine au nord du Laos : 196–207. La Rochelle: Muséum de La Rochelle.Google Scholar
Pryce, T.O, Pigott, V.C., Martinón-Torres, M. & Rehren, T.. 2010. Prehistoric copper production and technological reproduction in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 2: 237–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-010-0043-yCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryce, T.O., Pollard, M., Martinón-Torres, M., Pigott, V.C. & Pernicka, E.. 2011. Southeast Asia's first isotopically-defined prehistoric copper production system: when did extractive metallurgy begin in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand? Archaeometry 53: 146–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.2010.00527.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryce, T.O., Bevan, A.H., Ciarla, R., Rispoli, F., Castillo, C., Hassett, B. & Malakie, J.L.. 2013. Intensive archaeological survey in Southeast Asia: methodological and metallurgical insights from Khao Sai On, central Thailand. Asian Perspectives 50: 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1353/asi.2011.0000CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryce, T.O. et al. 2014. More questions than answers: the Southeast Asian lead isotope project 2009–2012. Journal of Archaeological Science 42: 273–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.08.024CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryce, T.O., Aung Kyaw, A.A., Kyaw, M.M. & Win, T.T.. 2018a. A first absolute chronology for Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age Myanmar: new AMS 14C dates from Nyaung'gan and Oakaie. Antiquity 92: 690–708. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryce, T.O. et al. 2018b. Metallurgical traditions and metal exchange networks in late prehistoric central Myanmar, c. 1000 BC to c. AD 500. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 10: 1087–1109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0436-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, P.J. et al. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50 000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rispoli, F., Ciarla, R. & Pigott, V.C.. 2013. Establishing the prehistoric cultural sequence for the Lopburi Region, central Thailand. Journal of World Prehistory 26: 101–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-013-9064-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B.W., Thornton, C.P. & Pigott, V.C.. 2009. Development of metallurgy in Eurasia. Antiquity 83: 1012–22. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00099312CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, W.B.F. et al. 2009. Global multi-resolution topography (GMRT) synthesis data set. Geochemisty. Geophysics. Geosystems 10(3): Q03014 https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GC002332Google Scholar
Takaya, Y. 1987. Agricultural development of a tropical delta. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Tucci, A., Sayavongkhamdy, T., Chang, N. & Souksavatdy, V.. 2014. Ancient copper mining in Laos: heterarchies, incipient states or post-state anarchists? Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology 2(2): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.15640/jaa.v2n2a1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, S.A., Lehman, H., Barela, T., Hawks, S. & Harriman, D.. 2010. Rice or millets: early farming strategies in prehistoric central Thailand. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 2: 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-010-0030-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, A.D. 1989. The COMPASS system: computer-assisted surveying and mapping for archaeological fieldwork, in Rahtz, S. & Richards, J. (ed.) Computer applications and quantitative methods in archaeology 1989 (British Archaeological Reports International series 548): 295–318. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
White, J.C. 2008. Dating early bronze at Ban Chiang, Thailand, in Pautreau, J.P., Coupey, A.S., Zeitoun, V. & Rambault, E. (ed.) From Homo Erectus to the living traditions: 91–104. Chiang-Mai: European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists.Google Scholar
White, J.C. & Hamilton, E.G.. 2014. The transmission of early bronze technology to Thailand: new perspectives, in Roberts, B.W. & Thornton, C.P. (ed.) Archaeometallurgy in global perspective: 805–52. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9017-3_28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, J.C. & Hamilton, E.G.. 2018. Ban Chiang, northeast Thailand, volume 2A: background to the study of the metal remains. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
White, J.C. & Hamilton, E.G.. 2020. Ban Chiang, northeast Thailand, volume 2C: the metal remains in regional context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Higham et al. supplementary material

Higham et al. supplementary material

Download Higham et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 382.3 KB