Asia: Southeast Asia (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (125 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Angkor Borei, Cambodia was a major center of the Funan civilization during the early first millennium CE. As with many sites in Cambodia, Angkor Borei has also been heavily looted. This poster presents our analysis of 362 ceramic spindle whorls from a looted collection undergoing repatriation to Cambodia. We compared the collection to a previously developed...
Staying Afloat: A Comparative Case Study of Angkor Wat and Tikal’s Management of Water (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation is a large-scale comparative case study of two distinct regions to see how their use and control of water was similar given their environments but different from social, political, and cultural perspectives. Specifically, I examine the sociopolitical nature of Angkor Wat as an expression of ancient Khmer culture and the Classic Maya city of...
Stone Monumentality in Tana Toraja, Indonesia: Initial Ethnoarchaeological Insights (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stone remains a prominent feature of the natural and cultural landscape of Tana Toraja, Indonesia, where outcropping basalt and limestone karst formations create a dramatic backdrop. In this context, the manipulation of stone is an important aspect of ancient cultural traditions that persist to the present day, but which has received relatively little...
Techno-Morphological Approach to the Stoneware Production in Angkor (2018)
This paper will discuss several aspects of premodern stoneware industry in Cambodia. Based on the results of resent excavation of the stoneware kilns in Angkor area, traits of the kiln structure, fuel strategy, forming techniques, glazing, and loading method of the Khmer stoneware will be discussed.
The Technology of Metallurgy and Evolving Views of Its Development in Prehistoric Thailand (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Paradigms Shift: New Interpretations in Mainland Southeast Asian Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the archaeology of prehistoric Thailand, the sub-field of archaeometallurgy has undergone numerous changes in established perceptions, both anthropologically and technologically. This paper introduces the Symposium and overviews recent shifts that characterize how metallurgy in Thailand has come to be...
The Temples of the Classical Kingdom of Bagan, Myanmar: The Bundling of Royalty, Religion, and People (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bagan was Myanmar’s political, economic, and cultural centre during the country’s Classical period (c. 800-1400 CE). Encompassing an area of 80 kilometers square, this landscape was home to approximately 4,000 brick monuments. These monuments were the result of the Buddhist pursuit of merit-making, the idea that...
Theravada Buddhist Monastic Activity at Angkor: A Discussion of What, Where, and When (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The religious transition of the Khmer Empire (ca. 802–1431 CE) from Saivaite and/or Mahayana Buddhism to the religion known today as “Theravada Buddhism” is thought today to be one of the defining social phenomena of the late Angkorian period (ca. fourteenth to fifteenth centuries) in medieval Cambodia. However, despite...
Towards an Integrated Socio-ecological History for Residential Patterning, Agricultural Practices, and Water Management at the Classical Burmese (Bama) Capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th Centuries CE) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The IRAW@Bagan project is striving to generate an integrated socio-ecological history for residential patterning, agricultural practices, and water management at the Classical Burmese (Bama) capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th centuries CE) across a range of significant ecological, climatic, economic,...
Trade networks and selective cultural transmission of ceramic technologies in Neolithic southern Vietnam (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Movement of Technical Knowledge: Cross-Craft Perspectives on Mobility and Knowledge in Production Technologies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New research on trade networks amongst early sedentary Neolithic communities, c. 4200-3000 BP, in southern Vietnam has shown that domesticated cereals and stone resources were imported to the coastal site of Rach Nui. While the stone likely came from quarry locales in the...
A Trading Post or Craftspeople’s Village? A Ceramic Perspective of the Blihun Hanben Site in Eastern Taiwan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community " session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Blihun Hanben (BHB) site in ancient Taiwan, dated between 2,000 and 1,200 years ago, contained a wide range of remains that indicate an iron crafting settlement. The excavation yielded over 9,000 kg of ceramics from two cultural layers, indicating a prolonged period of...
The Transition from the Middle to the Late Neolithic in the Yilan Plain, Northeast Taiwan (ca. 4,200 ~3,700 B.P.) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the transition from the Middle to the Late Neolithic period in the Yilan Plain, Northeast Taiwan (ca. 4,200~3,700 B.P.) with a specific focus on analysing the material objects excavated from two sites, the Tatsuwei site (4,200-3,700 cal. B.P.) and the Wansan site (3,900-2,500 cal. B.P.). Previous research emphasized the importance of...
The Two Pillars of the Kingdom of Bagan, Myanmar: How Royalty and Religion Shaped the Settlement Patterns of an Empire (2018)
Bagan was the political, economic, and cultural centre of Myanmar during the country’s Classical Period (c. 800 – 1400 CE). This immense empire operated primarily on two institutions: the crown and the sangha (Buddhist monkhood). Kutho (merit) was arguably one of the most important Buddhist doctrines in Bagan as it was believed to guarantee better social status upon reincarnation. Kutho, for the elite, was most commonly obtained by contributing large donations to the sangha. These donations took...
Under the Church Bell: Reducción and Control in Spanish Philippines (2018)
The Spanish conquest of the Philippines redesigned the indigenous landscape to adhere to the idealized orthogonal plan outlined by King Philip II’s Ordinances of 1573, centered on the church plaza. This reconfiguration facilitated the successful political, economic, and religious control of the colonial possession. An aspect of this resettlement plan is the concept of Bajo de Campana (under the bell) that implied control through the ringing of the church bell. The plaza complex, which is...
Unraveling Neolithic Cultures in the Taipei Basin through Pottery Technology at Tzufakung (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Taipei Basin holds archaeological significance, particularly in illuminating the Neolithic era in Taiwan. The sites of Yuanshan and Botanical Garden each represent distinct Neolithic cultural phases. However, the coexistence, contemporaneity, or transition between Neolithic cultures has been a subject of debate. The nationwide site survey,...
An Update on the Sonvian-Hoabinhian Controversy: Shape Analysis of Flakes and Cores from Mau A, Northern Vietnam (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding stone artefact variation in northern Vietnam can be challenging because of the underspecified cultural taxonomies that have dominated analytical frameworks. For example the Hoabinhian is often thought to be a descendant taxa to the Sonvian. Our recent excavations at Mau A challenge this sequence. We apply statistical shape analysis...
Urban Economies and State "Peripheries": Angkorian Stoneware Ceramic Production and Distribution (2018)
Angkor’s agro-urban capital covered more than 60 square miles, and its landscape housed farmers and artisans. Constraints of the archaeological record limit our ability to document production scale of most activities; the genealogical skew of Angkor’s epigraphic record in another reason. Yet Greater Angkor’s gardens and fields must have fed residents in the Angkorian state’s epicenter. Artisans built its temples, sculpted temple images, and cast metal goods; specialists and communities tended...
Urban Life Histories, Long-Term Angkorian Urbanism, and the Kok Phnov Site (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Angkor was premodern Southeast Asia’s largest city from the ninth to fifteenth century. Centered in northwest Cambodia near the Tonle Sap Lake, this agro-urban agglomeration comprises extensive settlements linked through a series of road and water management systems. Research on Angkorian urbanism has focused on either...
Urban-palaeoecology of Cambodia's 'Middle Period' (2018)
The transition from the sprawling Angkor kingdom with its vast, low-density urban forms, to a constellation of smaller cities on the Mekong River was accompanied by profound changes to urban ecology and to landscapes – both in the failing low-density cities, and in the burgeoning trade-based centres that replaced them. Here, we present a paleo record of urban ecology that responds, in part, to changing population dynamics across Cambodia during the 15th to 19th centuries C.E. Implications for...
Urbanism and Residential Patterning in Angkor (2018)
Greater Angkor (9-15th centuries CE) was mainland Southeast Asia’s largest low-density urban area. Some of the most visible aspects of this landscape are the large stone temples constructed by Angkorian kings and elites. While many scholars have hypothesized that these temple enclosures were loci of habitation, few have documented this archaeologically. In this paper, we present the results of two field seasons of excavation at the temple site of Ta Prohm, part of a broader research program that...
Using Sacred Landscape Model of Indigenous Cave Use in the Philippines (2018)
Caves are natural spaces, but like other natural settings, they can be perceived by people through highly variable cultural lenses. Caves are not generally used as utilitarian spaces, but are more often sacred spaces where rituals are performed. The material record of these subterranean features can provide insights for how past peoples connected to the symbolic landscapes of caves, thus affording opportunities to assess behaviors. Research on the ritual uses of caves is fairly new in the...
Warfare and the Rise of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southeast Asia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have long been interested in the development of social complexity and associated institutions of governance and political control. Within Southeast Asia, historical societies such as Angkor provide insights around premodern state societies. This paper deals with evidence from the late prehistoric era, addressing the role of...
Water Management in the Land of the Terribly Hot: A Hydrological Study of the Bagan Settlement Zone (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located along the Ayeyarwady river, in the dry-zone of Upper Myanmar, is an area once described as "the land of the terribly hot", a land where the Classical Burmese capital of Bagan (11th to 14th centuries CE) is found. Home to over 4,000 monuments, a large and diverse population lived within the mixed urban-rural...
Water, Ritual, and Prosperity at the Medieval Capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th Centuries CE): Preliminary Exploration of the Tuyin-Thetso "Water Mountain" and the Nat Yekan Sacred Water Tank (2018)
The IRAW@Bagan project is aimed at developing an integrated socio-ecological history for residential patterning, agricultural practices, and water management at the Medieval Burmese (Bama) capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th century CE). As part of this long-term research program investigations have been initiated on the Tuyin-Thetso mountain range, located 11.25 km southeast of Bagan’s walled and moated epicenter. This upland area figures prominently in the chronicles of early Bagan, and...
What Was Angkorian Theravada? New Analyses and Findings from "Buddhist Terraces" and Other Monastic Structures at Angkor Thom, Cambodia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Khmer Empire (c. 802-1431 CE) is believed to have undergone a dramatic religious transition during the 14th century from syncretic Brahmano-Buddhist worship to what is defined currently as "Theravada Buddhism". While demarcated in previous scholarship by a cessation of monumental temple-building central to previous traditions, the establishment and...
Why Stop Smelting Here? Using the History of a Slag Concentration to Understand Variability in Angkorian Iron Production Sites in the Phnom Dek Metallurgical Landscape, Cambodia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Phnom Dek metallurgical landscape represents the single largest iron smelting region in mainland Southeast Asia. Located 100 km east of Angkor in central Cambodia, our surveys have identified over 20 production sites and a total of 150 individual slag mounds active between the sixth and twentieth centuries. Iron...