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Trans-Asiatic exchange of glass, gold and bronze: analysis of finds from the late prehistoric Pangkung Paruk site, Bali

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2020

Ambra Calo*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Australia
Peter Bellwood
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, Australia
James Lankton
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK
Andreas Reinecke
Affiliation:
German Archaeological Institute, Bonn, Germany
Rochtri Agung Bawono
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Udayana University, Indonesia
Bagyo Prasetyo
Affiliation:
National Centre for Archaeological Research, Jakarta, Indonesia
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ [email protected]

Abstract

Excavations at the stone sarcophagus burial site of Pangkung Paruk on Bali have yielded the largest collection of Roman gold-glass beads in early Southeast Asia found to date, together with elaborate gold ornaments and two Han Chinese bronze mirrors. Unprecedented in Island Southeast Asia, these artefacts find parallels at Oc Eo in Vietnam, at other sites in the Mekong Delta and on the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Analyses of these new finds and comparison with others from across the region provide insights into the early to mid first-millennium AD trans-Asiatic networks that linked Southeast Asia to South Asia, the Roman world and China.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

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