Phu Lon and back again: following the steps of the Father of holistic Southeast Asian archaeometallurgy, Professor Vincent C. Pigott

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeometallurgy, Eurasia and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Vince Pigott" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Prehistoric metal artefacts have been studied archaeometrically since the outset of scientific archaeology in Thailand in the mid-1960s, sometimes by renowned archaeometallurgists like Bob Maddin, Cyril Stanley Smith, Igor Selimkhanov, Nigel Seeley and Tamara Stech Wheeler. However, it was only with the founding of the Thailand Archaeometallurgy Project (TAP) in 1984, by Vincent C. Pigott and Surapol Natapintu, that ancient Southeast Asian metallurgy began to be analysed in-the-round - that is, investigating all stages of copper-base metal consumption and production, from mining prospection to finished artefact deposition, within a well-founded anthropological and technological framework. TAP fieldwork began forty years ago, on the banks of the Mekong River at Phu Lon, which became the region's first known ancient copper mine. The TAP moved to the Khao Wong Prachan Valley in 1986 and continued fieldwork until 1994 but the project and its spinoffs remain active and influential across Southeast Asia. Prof. Pigott trained most of the first generation of Southeast Asian archaeometallurgists, who went on to have successful careers, and his influence and mentorship continue to benefit 4th or 5th generation regional specialists. Here we summarise Prof. Pigott's contribution and chart the path of cutting edge archaeological research back to Phu Lon.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Archaeometallurgy, Eurasia and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Vince Pigott

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51276