Isotopic and technological variation in prehistoric Southeast Asian primary copper production (original) (raw)
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The ‘Southeast Asian Lead Isotope Project’ (SEALIP) is intended to provide reliable geochemical proxies for late prehistoric through early historic (2nd/1st millennium BCE and 1st millennium CE) local, regional, and inter-regional social interactions, in an archaeological arena lacking established ceramic typologies with which to cross modern national boundaries. We present lead isotope characterisations of the three currently known Southeast Asian prehistoric primary (mining/smelting) copper production centres: Phu Lon and the Khao Wong Prachan Valley in Thailand, and the recently discovered Xepon complex in Laos. Kernel Density Estimation shows that these production centres can be clearly distinguished isotopically, as such fulfilling the core tenet of the ‘Provenance Hypothesis’ (Wilson and Pollard, 2001: 508) and permitting SEALIP to proceed as a research programme tracing regional copper/bronze/lead exchange and provenance patterning. In addition we provide a provisional technological reconstruction of copper smelting processes at Phu Lon to complement our more established understanding of the Khao Wong Prachan Valley. Combined lead isotope and technological datasets allow us to tentatively identify trends in the evolution of Southeast Asian metal technologies and of regional social perceptions of metal exchange.
Archaeometry, 2010
and first published bronze artefacts in claimed early/middle third millennium BCE contexts from northeastern Thailand, igniting a regional 'origins' of metallurgy debate that has smouldered for 40 years (e.g., White and Hamilton 2009, Higham in press). In this paper, we present the results of a lead isotope pilot study centred on the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand-currently Southeast Asia's only documented prehistoric copper smelting locale. These preliminary data indicate that our ongoing regional metal exchange research programme may be able to elucidate interaction networks between copper-producing and -consuming societies within and beyond Southeast Asia from c. 2000 BCE to c. 500 CE. Furthermore, we are able to offer tentative evidence relevant to 'Rapid Eurasian Technological Expansion Model'for the Sino-Siberian derivation of regional metal technologies around the turn of the third/second millennium BCE.
More questions than answers: the Southeast Asian Lead Isotope Project 2009-2012
As in most parts of the world, ancient Southeast Asian metal production and exchange has been accorded great importance as a cultural and technological development with far-reaching economic and political impacts. Here we present the results of the Southeast Asian Lead Isotope Project's 2009e2012 research campaign, a systematic effort to empirically reconstruct regional metal exchange networks and their attendant social interactions c. 1000 BCec. 500 AD. The study's morpho-stylistic, technological, elemental and isotopic datasets cover early metal production (minerals and slag) and consumption (Cu, CueSn, CuePb, CueSnePb alloys) assemblages from thirty sites in eight countries. These data have either identified or substantiated long-range maritime and terrestrial exchange networks connecting Han China and Mauryan India with most of continental Southeast Asia. The variety and intensity of the attested metal exchange behaviours hints at a dynamic and innovative 1st millennium BC regional economy and the vibrant exchange of cultural practices amongst populations separated by thousands of kilometres. Important too is the provision of indirect evidence for intra-regional economic integration between the Southeast Asia's metal-consuming lowland majorities and metal-producing upland minorities. Southeast Asia has a comparable surface area and present day population to Europe, and thus our efforts represent only the beginning for diachronic and multi-scalar metal exchange research. However, archaeometallurgical methodologies have the potential to greatly improve our understanding of Southeast Asia's vast cultural diversity and interconnectedness. With this paper we lay the framework for such an endeavour and, we hope, define the major questions for its next phase.
Archaeological and …, 2010
This paper concerns the identification and explanation of change in prehistoric extractive metallurgical behaviour in the Iron Age Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand. This metallurgical complex is amongst the largest in Eurasia and constitutes Southeast Asia's only documented pre-modern copper-smelting evidence. The two Iron Age smelting sites investigated, Non Pa Wai (NPW) and Nil Kham Haeng (NKH), provide a sequence of metallurgical consumption and production evidence from c. 500 BCE to c. 500 CE. The enormous quantity of industrial waste at these sites suggests they were probably major copper supply nodes within ancient Southeast Asian metal exchange networks. Seventy-six excavated samples of mineral, technical ceramic and slag from NPW and NKH were analysed in hand specimen, microstructurally by reflectedlight microscopy and scanning electron microscopy and chemically by polarising energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy with energydispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The analytical data were used to generate detailed technological reconstructions of copper-smelting behaviour at the two sites, which were refined by a programme of field experimentation. Results indicate an approximately 1,000-year trend of Valley copper smelters' improving technical proficiency from what may be an experimental phase of production in the mid-first millennium BCE. This amelioration in production was accompanied by a substantial increase in the human effort of copper extraction. This shift in local 'metallurgical ethos' is interpreted as a response to rising regional demand for copper in late prehistory.
2019
The application of lead isotope-based provenance analysis in Southeast Asia over the last decade has strongly suggested a central role was played by the Lao PDR in regional copper production exchange networks for approximately 1500 years. The Vilabouly Complex, in central Lao's Savannakhet Province, has revealed major copper mining and smelting sites dated to the regional Iron Age (c. 400 BC-AD 500) and possibly Bronze Age (c. 1000-400 BC). Metallurgical practices at the Vilabouly Complex, and indeed for all of the Lao PDR, are unknown, and the propose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analytical study of the Vilabouly Complex metal assemblage, including 60 copper-base artefacts of multiple typologies. Cut samples of these were subjected to morpho-stylistic, metallographic (OM), elemental (XRF, SEM-EDS) and lead isotope analyses (MC-ICP-MS) in order to reconstruct the range of forms, metalworking materials, techniques (alloying, casting and post-casting treatments) used at the Vilabouly Complex. The results revealed an assemblage composed of copper, bronze and leaded bronze alloys, with a majority consistent with the lead isotopic signature for the Vilabouly Complex copper. The consistent geochemical and technological signature of the majority of artefacts strongly corroborates the extensive onsite production evidence, and fits with the burgeoning regional copper-base metals database for copper metal demand being sated in large part by Lao PDR supply.
A prehistoric copper-production centre in central Thailand: its dating and wider implications
Antiquity, 2020
The Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand is one of four known prehistoric loci of copper mining, smelting and casting in Southeast Asia. Many radiocar-bon determinations from bronze-consumption sites in northeast Thailand date the earliest copper-base metallurgy there in the late second millennium BC. By applying kernel density estimation analysis to approximately 100 new AMS radiocarbon dates, the authors conclude that the valley's first Neolithic millet farmers had settled there by c. 2000 BC, and initial copper mining and rudimentary smelting began in the late second millennium BC. This overlaps with the established dates for Southeast Asian metal-consumption sites, and provides an important new insight into the development of metallurgy in central Thai-land and beyond.
2020 - A prehistoric copper-production centre in central Thailand: its dating and wider implications
Antiquity, 2020
The Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand is one of four known prehistoric loci of co-occurring copper mining, smelting and casting in Southeast Asia. Many radiocarbon determinations from bronze consumption sites in Northeast Thailand date the earliest copper-base metallurgy there in the late 2 nd millennium BC. By applying Kernel Density Estimation to ca. 100 new AMS radiocarbon dates, we conclude that the first millet farmers settled the valley by 2000 BC, and initial copper mining and rudimentary smelting began in the late second millennium BC. This dovetails with the established dates for Southeast Asian metal consumption sites.
SOUTHEAST ASIA’S FIRST ISOTOPICALLY DEFINED
and first published bronze artefacts in claimed early/middle third millennium BCE contexts from northeastern Thailand, igniting a regional 'origins' of metallurgy debate that has smouldered for 40 years (e.g., White and Hamilton 2009, Higham in press). In this paper, we present the results of a lead isotope pilot study centred on the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand-currently Southeast Asia's only documented prehistoric copper smelting locale. These preliminary data indicate that our ongoing regional metal exchange research programme may be able to elucidate interaction networks between copper-producing and -consuming societies within and beyond Southeast Asia from c. 2000 BCE to c. 500 CE. Furthermore, we are able to offer tentative evidence relevant to 'Rapid Eurasian Technological Expansion Model'for the Sino-Siberian derivation of regional metal technologies around the turn of the third/second millennium BCE.