Maritime Dvāravatī and the South China Sea from an Integrated Perspective of Ship Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Globalisation of Sino-foreign Maritime Exchange: Ocean Cultures", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Dvāravatī (6th – 11th century CE) was described in Chinese historical texts as a distinctive cultural polity in a strategic location in present-day central Thailand. The accessibility between continental landmass and water communications resulted in the interconnection with regional and overseas exchange networks. The limited availability of data, however, has resulted in an incomplete understanding of Dvāravatī’s relation to the maritime realm. This paper contends that we can advance our knowledge if we shift attention to maritime archaeology and examine the role of maritime Dvāravatī from a ship archaeology’s perspective. The intermingling distribution of Southeast Asian lashed-lug and Indian Ocean sewn-plank remains reflects the complexity of maritime connections that have not been considered before. Tapping into nautical technology as a source of data, this paper yields a fresh view of maritime Dvāravatī within the South China Sea region, notably its connections to China.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Globalisation of Sino-foreign Maritime Exchange: Ocean Cultures   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow