Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T17:00:23.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evolving Archaeological Perspectives on Southeast Asia, 1970–95

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

John N. Miksic
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore

Extract

In the late 1960s, archaeological theory underwent a period of rapid and significant change. A group of scholars became known as progenitors of an approach termed New Archaeology. Some of these changes have been critized as lacking in substance, but it cannot be denied that much archaeological research and analysis performed during the 1970s and 1980s followed a new and more constructive agenda.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a recent summary of the state of research on the Javanese palaeolithic, see Dossiers d'Archéologie 184 (Juillet-Aout 1993).Google Scholar

2 Thong, Pham Huy, “Con Moong Cave: a Noteworthy Archaeological Discovery in Vietnam”, Asian Perspectives 23, 1 (1980): 1721Google Scholar; Tan, Ha Van, “Development of Archaeology in Vietnam”, Current Developments in Southeast Asian Archaeology (Bangkok: Final Report of the SEAMEO-SPAFA Workshop-Conference on Current Developments in Southeast Asian Archaeology, 9–14 March 1993): 7380.Google Scholar

3 Movius, H.L. Jr., The Lower Palaeolithic Cultures of Southern and Eastern Asia. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, ns 38,4 (1948).Google Scholar

4 Hutterer, K.L., “An Evolutionary Approach to the Southeast Asian Cultural Sequence”, Current Anthropology 17, 2 (1976): 221–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and “Reinterpreting the Southeast Asian Paleolithic”, in Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia, ed. Allen, J., Golson, J. and Jones, R. (New York: Academic Press, 1977), pp. 3177.Google Scholar

5 Anderson, D.D., Lang Rongrien Rockshelter: A Pleistocene-Early Holocene Archaeological Site from Krabi, Southwestern Thailand (Philadelphia: University Museum, 1990).Google Scholar

6 Bellwood, P. (ed. and comp.), Archaeological Research in South-Eastern Sabah (Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Museum Monograph Vol. 2, 1988).Google Scholar

7 Glover, I.C., “Leang Burung 2: an Upper Palaeolithic Rock Shelter in South Sulawesi, Indonesia”, Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 6 (1981): 138.Google Scholar

8 Anderson, Lang Rongrien, pp. 72–75.

9 Sauer, C.O., Agricultural Origins and Dispersals (New York: George Grady Press, 1952).Google Scholar

10 Gorman, C., “Hoabinhian: a Pebble-tool Complex with Early Plant Associations in Southeast Asia”, Science 163 (1969): 671–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “Excavations at Spirit Cave, North Thailand: Some Interim Interpretations”, Asian Perspectives 13 (1970): 79107Google Scholar. Chester Gorman tragically died of cancer in 1981, at the age of 43. He would certainly have revised his earlier work in the light of subsequent discoveries had he had the opportunity.

11 Yen, D.E., “Hoabinhian Horticulture? The Evidence and the Questions from Northwest Thailand”, in Sunda and Sahul, ed. Allen, J., Golson, J. and Jones, R. (London: Academic Press, 1977), pp. 567–99.Google Scholar

12 For Gorman's later research in north Thailand, see Reynolds, T.E.G., “Excavations at Banyan Valley Cave, Northern Thailand: a Report on the 1972 Season”, Asian Perspectives 31, 1 (1992): 7797.Google Scholar

13 Pyramarn, K., “New Evidence on Plant Exploitation and Environment During the Hoabinhian (Late Stone Age) from Ban Kao Caves, Thailand”, in Foraging and Farming, ed. Harris, D.R. and Hillman, G.C. (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989), pp. 283–91.Google Scholar

14 White, J.C., “Ethnoecology at Ban Chiang and the Emergence of Plant Domestication in Southeast Asia”, in Southeast Asian Archaeology at the XV Pacific Science Congress, ed. Bayard, D.T. (Dunedin: University of Otago Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology Vol. 16, 1984), pp. 2635Google Scholar; White, J.C., “Ethnoecological Observations on Wild and Cultivated Rice and Yams in Northeastern Thailand”, in Foraging and Farming, ed. Harris, D.R. and Hillman, G.C. (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989), pp. 152–58.Google Scholar

15 The chronology of Ban Chiang has been intensively debated. Many of the remains are found in intercutting burials, creating difficulties in associating carbon samples with other materials. Thermoluminescence dating was employed in an endeavour to circumvent this problem, but yielded dates which are now thought to be too early. Remains once thought to be 6,000 years old are now dated at only 4,000. See articles by Loofs-Wissowa, H.H.E., Bayard, D. and Charoenwongsa, P., and Solheim, W.G. II in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 14, 1 (1983)Google Scholar; and Bayard, D.T., “Chronology, Evolution, and Diffusion in the Later Southeast Asian Cultural Sequence: Some Comments on Higham's Recent Revision”, in Man and His Culture – a Resurgence, ed. Bellwood, P. (New Delhi: Books & Books, 1992), pp. 267–92.Google Scholar

16 Glover, I.C., “Some Problems Relating to the Domestication of Rice in Asia”, in Recent Advances in Indo-Pacific Prehistory, ed. Misra, V.N. and Bellwood, P. (New Delhi: Oxford, 1985), pp. 265–74.Google Scholar

17 P. Bellwood, R. Gillespie, G.B. Thompson, J.S. Vogel, I.W. Ardika and Ipoi Datan, “New Dates for Prehistoric Asian Rice”, Asian Perspectives 31, 2 (1992): 161–70.

18 Higham, C., Kijngam, A. et al. , Prehistoric Investigations in Northeast Thailand (Oxford: BAR International Series 231, 1984), 3 parts.Google Scholar

19 The Excavation of Khok Phanom Di, A Prehistoric Site in Central Thailand (London: Society of Antiquaries of London, Reports of the Research Committee), no. 47, vol. I: “The Excavation, Chronology and Human Burials” by Higham, C.F.W. and Bannanurag, R. (1990)Google Scholar; no. 48, vol. II: ‘The Biological Remains (Part I)”, ed. Higham, C.F.W. and Bannanurag, R. (1991)Google Scholar; no. 50, vol. III: “The Material Culture (Part I)”, ed. Higham, C.F.W. and Thosarat, R. (1993).Google Scholar

20 Higham, C.F.W., The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 73.Google Scholar

21 Monographs by Thai scholars on ethnoarchaeology include: Suchitta, P., Past and Present Use of Khok Phanom Di Mound, Thailand: an Anthropological-Archaeological Assessment (Bangkok: Thammasat University, Thai Khadi Research Institute Research Series No. 3, 1980)Google Scholar; and Pookajorn, S. and Staff, Preliminary Report of Excavations at Moh-Khiew Cave, Krabi Province, Sakai Cave, Trang Province and Ethnoarchaeological Research of Hunter-Gatherer Group, Socall “Sakai” or “Semang” at Trang Province (Bangkok: Silpakorn University, The Hoabinhian Research Project in Thailand, Vol. 1, 1991Google Scholar). For a summary of such research in Asia, see Griffin, P.B. and Solheim, W.G. II, “Ethnoarchaeological Research in Asia”, Asian Perspectives 28, 2 (19881989): 145–62.Google Scholar

22 Bellwood, P., Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago (Sydney: Academic Press, 1985), p. 230.Google Scholar

23 Stuijts, I.-L.M., “Late Pleistocene and Holocene Vegetation of West Java, Indonesia”, Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 12 (1993).Google Scholar

24 Maloney, B.K., “Grass Pollen and the Origins of Rice Agriculture in North Sumatra”, Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 11 (1990): 135–61.Google Scholar

25 Maloney, B.K., “Pollen Analytical Evidence for Early Forest Clearance in North Sumatra”, Nature 287 (1980): 324–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Stuijts, “Late Pleistocene and Holocene Vegetation of West Java, Indonesia”, pp. 121–26.

27 Khoach, Nguyen Ba, “Phung Nguyen”, Asian Perspectives 23, 1 (1980): 2353Google Scholar; Chinh, Hoang Xuan and Tien, Bui Van, “The Dongson Culture and Cultural Centers in the Metal Age in Vietnam”, Asian Perspectives 23, 1 (1980): 5565.Google Scholar

28 Dongson drums are now known from Borneo, an island where they had previously been unknown; McKinnon, E. Edwards, “The Sambas Hoard: Bronze Drums, and Gold Ornaments Found in Kalimantan in 1991”, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 67, 1 (1994): 928.Google Scholar

29 Hoang Xuan Chinh and Bui Van Tien, “Dongson Culture”.

30 Ha, “Development”, pp. 78–79.

31 Miksic, J.N., “Settlement Patterns and Sub-regions in Southeast Asian History”, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 31, 1 (1991): 86144.Google Scholar

32 C.F.W. Higham, Archaeology, p. 210.

33 See for example Mabbett, I.W., “The ‘Indianization’ of Southeast Asia: Reflections on the Prehistoric Sources”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 8, 1 (1977): 114CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “The ‘Indianization’ of Southeast Asia: Reflections on the Historical Sources”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 8, 2 (1977): 143–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Wolters, O.W., History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1982).Google Scholar

35 Ha, “Development”, p. 80.

36 Glover, I.C., Early Trade Between India and South-East Asia: A Link in the Development of a World Trading System (Hull: University of Hull, Centre for South-East Asian Studies, Occasional Papers No. 16, 1989).Google Scholar

37 A. Srisuchat, “A New Viewpoint on the Early Contact Period in Thailand Based on Archaeological Data”, Current Developments: 122–31.

38 Bronson, B., “The Late Prehistory and Early History of Central Thailand with Special Reference to Chansen”, in Early South East Asia, ed. Smith, R.B. and Watson, W. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 315–36.Google Scholar

39 Walker, M.J.S. and Santoso, S., “Romano-Indian Rouletted Pottery in Indonesia”, Mankind 11 (1977): 3945.Google Scholar

40 Ardika, I.W. and Bellwood, P., “Sembiran: the Beginnings of Indian Contact with Bali”, Antiquity 65, 247 (1991): 221–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 E. Sedyawati, “Pengarcaan Ganesa Masa Kadiri dan Sinhasari: Sebuah Tinjauan Sejarah Kesenian” (Ph.D. diss., Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, 1985).Google Scholar

42 Endang Sri Hardiati Soekatno, “Arca Tidak Beratribut Dewa di Bali: Sebuah Kajian Ikonografis dan Fungsional” (Ph.D. diss., Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, 1993).Google Scholar

43 Endang Sri Hardiati Soekatno, “Arca Tidak Beratribut”, p. 189.

44 See for example Casparis, J.G. de, “Pour une histoire sociale de l'ancienne Java principalement au x-eme S”, Archipel 21 (1981): 125–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 Projects in Thailand which cover the period from late prehistory to prohistory include Ho, C.M., “An Analysis of Settlement Patterns in the Lopburi Area”, in Early Metallurgy, Trade and Urban Centres in Thailand and Southeast Asia, ed. 1. SuchittaGlover, P. Glover, P. and Villiers, J. (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1992), pp. 3946Google Scholar; and D.J. Welch, “Settlement Pattern as an Indicator of Subsistence and Political Organization in the Phimai Region, Thailand”, in Southeast Asian Archaeology at the XV Pacific Science Congress, pp. 129–51.

46 On p. 24 of Melaka: the Transformation of a Malay Capital c. 1400–1980, vol. 1, ed. Sandhu, K.S. and Wheatley, P. (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford, 1982)Google Scholar, reprinted in Wheatley, P., Nagara and Commandery: Origins of the Southeast Asian Urban Traditions (Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper nos. 207–208, 1983), p. 426.Google Scholar

47 I must admit that more work on this subject may be available in Thai or Vietnamese language sources. Another important problem inhibiting progress in Southeast Asian archaeology is that a large amount of data is only published in government reports or other sources with limited distribution and in local languages. For Indonesia I know this is true, and I know of isolated examples from other countries in the region.

48 Hutterer, K.L. and MacDonald, W.K. (eds.), Houses Built on Scattered Poles: Prehistory and Ecology in Negros Oriental, Philippines (Cebu City: University of San Carlos Press, 1982).Google Scholar

49 See for examples Junker, L., “Craft Goods Specialization and Prestige Goods Exchange in Philippine Chiefdoms of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries”, Asian Perspectives 32, 1 (1993): 135Google Scholar; Junker, L., “The Development of Centralized Craft Production Systems in AD 500–1600 Philippine chiefdoms”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 25, 1 (1994): 130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 Branson, B. and Wisseman, J., “Palembang as Srivijaya: the Lateness of Early Cities in Southern Southeast Asia”, Asian Perspectives 19, 2 (1976): 220–39.Google Scholar

51 Manguin, P.-Y., “Études sumatranaises, I: Palembang et Sriwijaya. Anciennes hypotheses, recherches nouvelles”, Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient 76 (1987): 337402CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “Excavations in South Sumatra, 1988–90: New Evidence for Sriwijayan Sites”, in Southeast Asian Archaeology 1990: Proceedings of the Third Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, ed Glover, I.C. (Hull: Centre for South-East Asian Studies, Hull University, 1992), pp. 6374.Google Scholar

52 Bronson and Wisseman, “Lateness of Early Cities”; Wheatley, Nagara and Commandery, pp. 245–48.

53 Perhaps his best-known article is “Pottery and the Malayo-Polynesians”, Current Anthropology 5, 5 (1964): 360, 376–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 An excellent recent example of an innovative intrasite settlement pattern study is that of Nastiti, Titi Surti and Rangkuti, Nurhadi, Laporan Penelitian dan Ekskavasi Caruban, Lasem, Jawa Tengah (Jakarta: Berita Penelitian Arkeologi 38, 1988).Google Scholar

55 A recent doctoral dissertation by an epigrapher on the inscriptions of Majapahit wilt no doubt be useful to future archaeological research on this topic: Machi Suhadi, “Tanah Sima Dalam Masyarakat Majapahit” (Ph.D. diss., Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, 1993).Google Scholar

56 Howitz, P.C., “Two Ancient Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Thailand: a Report on Archaeological Investigations”, Journal of the Siam Society 65, 2 (1977): 122.Google Scholar

57 Representative publications include: Green, J. and Harper, R., The Excavation of the Pattaya Wreck Site and Survey of Three Other Sites, Thailand, 1982 [Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology: Special Publication No. 1 (1983)]Google Scholar; J. Green and R. Harper, The Maritime Archaeology of Shipwrecks and Ceramics in Southeast Asia and Green, J., Harper, R. and Intakosi, Vidya, The Ko Si Chang Three Shipwreck Excavation 1986 [Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology: Special Publication No. 4 (1987)].Google Scholar

58 Sheaf, C. and Kilburn, R., The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes: The Complete Record (Oxford: Phaidon/Christie's, 1988).Google Scholar

59 For examples, see Dossiers Histoire et Archeologie No. 113, 1987 (a report on research in the Philippines) and Flecker, M., “Excavation of an Oriental Vessel of c. 1690 off Con Dao, Vietnam”, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 21, 3 (1992): 221–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

60 For a summary of this topic, see Manguin, P.-Y., “Late Mediaeval Asian Shipbuilding in the Indian Ocean: a Reappraisal”, Moyen Orient et Ocean Indien 2, 2 (1985): 130.Google Scholar

61 An example is the Pulau Buaya wreck, found in Riau, Indonesia, in 1989. Ridho, Abu, “The Pulau Buaya Wreck”, MS.Google Scholar

62 Hutterer, K., “Early Southeast Asia: Old Wine in New Skins? – A Review Article”, Journal of Asian Studies 41, 3 (1982): 559–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 Peterson, W., “Colonialism, Culture History, and Southeast Asian Prehistory”, Asian Perspectives 25, 1 (19821983): 123–32.Google Scholar

64 Soejono, R.P., “Tinjauan Tentang Perkerangkaan Prasejarah Indonesia”, Aspek-Aspek Arkeologi Indonesia 5 (1976).Google Scholar

65 The most recent statement on this topic is Wolters, O.W., “Southeast Asia as a Southeast Asian Field of Study”, Indonesia 58 (1994): 118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar