Skip to main content
Read page text
page 40
ABOVE Burials 105 and 106 were found within one large grave. One of the women had been partially exhumed, before the bones were carefully replaced. She was accompanied by a bronze axe. The other woman lay intact. BELOW The woman in burial 105 wore 24 exotic marine shell earrings. Rich revelations This is the sort of discovery that encouraged my team to return for six more seasons, and in due course, to open a uniquely large area of such a settlement. Our second superburial soon came. This time, it contained the remains of two women, one of whom had been partially exhumed and replaced. She too was accompanied by a socketed bronze axe, and in a bizarre twist, a rat had been buried beside her left ankle, under a clay pellet bow of the sort still used to hunt small birds and animals. The second woman lay undisturbed, so we could uncover her belts of shell beads, and many strands of shell bead necklaces. We prised away the soil from 12 shell earrings before afternoon tea, and then a matching set on the other side of her skull after. Her lower arms were covered in massive tridacna shell bangles. During our last three seasons, the superburials came thick and fast. One row contained infants, each in graves far too large for the tiny body, but filled with offerings. A red painted design on one vessel turned out to be a stylised human face. Even infants were buried with bronze axes. One man in this group had three bronze axes, one of which was a miniature. A second man had a set of what look like carpenters’ tools in bronze, including an awl and chisels to complement his two axes. In this part of the world, bells were thought to belong to the Iron Age, but we came across the grave of an infant who wore 30 bronze bells attached to its anklets. Further to the east came another row of graves. Mineralised wood and a straight line of clay revealed that these men, women and children had lain in coffins, beside which their pots had been placed in straight lines, while clusters of pots were found beyond the head and feet. Some infants were found in this group within pots embellished with sophisticated curvilinear painted patterns. Two giant graves lay to the north. One man had again been partially disinterred and replaced. When I closely examined his ceramic vessels, I saw faint red painted lines. My Thai colleague Dr Warrachai Wiriyaromp reconstructed these patterns and painted reconstructions of each vessel. Over a thousand years earlier than the widely publicised Iron Age painted pots found at the site of Ban Chiang, these are remarkable examples of early Southeast Asian art. Again we sought the tell-tale signs of a grave cut seen in changes in soil colour and texture and, in February 2007, came across the longest grave of all, so long that I couldn’t photograph it all in one image without a wide angle lens. The drama of the Bronze Age By assessing the positioning of these early Bronze Age aristocrats, I was able to identify three distinct phases of burial, which I have termed Bronze Age 1, 2 and 3. There are five graves in the earliest, all contain a distinctive form of socketed bronze axe, and pots that are slightly evolved from the local latest Neolithic. Dramatically, with the Bronze Age came much more elaborate burial rituals. One of our early five was interred in a very deep grave, within a 40 C U R R E N TW O R L DA R C H A E O L O G Y . Issue 35
page 41
THAILAND wooden coffin fashioned with a pointed prow, resembling a boat. Another skeleton was covered with a layer of gastropod shellfish. Then come the large superburials, but these were covered by a further set or row of Bronze Age 3 graves in which the men and women wore up to 40 shell bangles on each arm, not to mention massive imported marble bangles, thousands of beads and more large pots. I now had to face the vital issue of chronology as a prelude to assessing how the beginnings of the Bronze Age affected the social order of the day. Dating the Bronze Age in Southeast Asia has been a thorny issue since incredible claims were made in the 1970s, on the basis of the RIGHT This intact superburial of a man reveals the splendour of the early Bronze Age mortuary tradition. He was not alone in his grave: there was also the complete skeleton of a chicken. His pottery vessels bore fine painted designs, one being covered with the silhouettes of human hands. A bronze tool kit of axes and chisels lay beyond his head. LEFT Ban Non Wat during the second phase of the Bronze Age. Every burial, be it man woman or infant, was richly endowed with offerings and nearly all contained at least one bronze. Most were socketed axes, but there were also anklets, bells and chisels. sites of Non Nok Tha and Ban Chiang, that it was the earliest in the world. While the exaggeration and hyperbole have subsided, there are still claims that bronze reached Thailand by 2000 BC. The techniques of radiocarbon dating, however, have moved forward fast. With OxCal 4.0, we can now combine a large series of dates with Bayesian statistics in order to refine a site’s sequence, identify transitional periods and estimate the duration of phases. Last year, my son Thomas, at Oxford’s radiocarbon dating laboratory, gave me a copy of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal special supplement, which I read while flying to give some lectures in the Canary Islands. It was a revelation. On my return, I decided, irrespective of the cost, www.world-archaeology.com LEFT One man at Ban Non Wat was buried with three socketed bronze axes, one of which was a miniature. 41

ABOVE Burials 105 and 106 were found within one large grave. One of the women had been partially exhumed, before the bones were carefully replaced. She was accompanied by a bronze axe. The other woman lay intact.

BELOW The woman in burial 105 wore 24 exotic marine shell earrings.

Rich revelations This is the sort of discovery that encouraged my team to return for six more seasons, and in due course, to open a uniquely large area of such a settlement. Our second superburial soon came. This time, it contained the remains of two women, one of whom had been partially exhumed and replaced. She too was accompanied by a socketed bronze axe, and in a bizarre twist, a rat had been buried beside her left ankle, under a clay pellet bow of the sort still used to hunt small birds and animals. The second woman lay undisturbed, so we could uncover her belts of shell beads, and many strands of shell bead necklaces. We prised away the soil from 12 shell earrings before afternoon tea, and then a matching set on the other side of her skull after. Her lower arms were covered in massive tridacna shell bangles.

During our last three seasons, the superburials came thick and fast. One row contained infants, each in graves far too large for the tiny body, but filled with offerings. A red painted design on one vessel turned out to be a stylised human face. Even infants were buried with bronze axes. One man in this group had three bronze axes, one of which was a miniature. A second man had a set of what look like carpenters’ tools in bronze, including an awl and chisels to complement his two axes. In this part of the world, bells were thought to belong to the Iron Age, but we came across the grave of an infant who wore 30 bronze bells attached to its anklets.

Further to the east came another row of graves. Mineralised wood and a straight line of clay revealed that these men, women and children had lain in coffins, beside which their pots had been placed in straight lines, while clusters of pots were found beyond the head and feet. Some infants were found in this group within pots embellished with sophisticated curvilinear painted patterns. Two giant graves lay to the north. One man had again been partially disinterred and replaced. When I closely examined his ceramic vessels, I saw faint red painted lines. My Thai colleague Dr Warrachai Wiriyaromp reconstructed these patterns and painted reconstructions of each vessel. Over a thousand years earlier than the widely publicised Iron Age painted pots found at the site of Ban Chiang, these are remarkable examples of early Southeast Asian art. Again we sought the tell-tale signs of a grave cut seen in changes in soil colour and texture and, in February 2007, came across the longest grave of all, so long that I couldn’t photograph it all in one image without a wide angle lens.

The drama of the Bronze Age By assessing the positioning of these early Bronze Age aristocrats, I was able to identify three distinct phases of burial, which I have termed Bronze Age 1, 2 and 3. There are five graves in the earliest, all contain a distinctive form of socketed bronze axe, and pots that are slightly evolved from the local latest Neolithic. Dramatically, with the Bronze Age came much more elaborate burial rituals. One of our early five was interred in a very deep grave, within a

40

C U R R E N TW O R L DA R C H A E O L O G Y . Issue 35

My Bookmarks


Skip to main content