Enigmatic Copper-base Cordiform Implements as Markers of Later 1st Millennium BCE Regional Interaction
Author(s): Vincent Pigott
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "The Social and Environmental Context for Early Metalworking in Central Thailand" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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Thailand Archaeometallurgy Project (TAP) excavations (1990) at the 5-hectare, copper-smelting settlement of Nil Kham Haeng (NKH) in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley (KWPV) in central Thailand, yielded certain enigmatic metal artefacts. They are small, copper-base, socketed implements termed ‘cordiforms’ given their heart-shaped typology. 4 of NKH’s 14 burials contained cordiforms, one cluster comprising 60 examples. They are thought to date to the later 1<sup>st</sup> millennium BCE. Nothing about them suggests functionality. Sockets are very small. Cordiform blades are only a few millimeters thick and are often mis-cast. Examples were excavated at Noen Din not far from the KWPV and at other sites on the Lopburi Plain (e.g., near Phromthin Tai, Ban Pong Manao). Significantly, two examples were excavated in northeast Thailand at Ban Non Wat (BNW) where lead isotope analysis linked other BNW artifacts to KWPV ore deposits. Contemporaneous cordiforms also have been excavated in Yunnan at Hejiashan. Hypotheses concerning their function are proposed: cordiforms as tradable commodities (a commodity currency?), as ingots, as tomb substitutes for functioning implements, but certainly as markers of trade and/or exchange and of commonly held technological and/or ideological traditions.
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Cite this Record
Enigmatic Copper-base Cordiform Implements as Markers of Later 1st Millennium BCE Regional Interaction. Vincent Pigott. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510126)
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Keywords
General
Asia: Southeast Asia
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 51468