Globalization in Southeast Asia’s Early Age of Commerce and the Contributions of Maritime Archaeology

Summary

Globalization has become a central concern of anthropology, and recently scholars have debated its definition, origins, and social implications. For example, some contend that it is a process associated with modern times while others argue that the first long-lived networks involving regular, trans-regional trade emerged between East Asia and the Mediterranean around AD 1000, and even earlier with other regions. It has become increasingly evident, based on a growing corpus of data, that long-distance economic and social interactions were very important in the ancient world in many different regions and had transformative effects on the communities involved. In this paper, we will examine current debates surrounding globalization and discuss how shipwrecks and other maritime archaeological sites can be used to investigate this phenomenon in East and Southeast Asia during the late first to mid-second millennia AD. In particular, we will highlight the Java Sea Shipwreck, a 12th-13th-century trading vessel thought to have been sailing from China to Java when it foundered in the Java Sea.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14712