Prehistoric Copper Production and Exchange in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Abstract In ore-rich Mainland Southeast Asia, the advent of copper-base metallurgy was a transitional moment in later Holocene prehistory. Its significance lay not in substantive societal change, but in the role its production and consumption behaviors played in reaffirming social networks critical to regional technology transfer. This chapter summarizes archaeological and analytical evidence for chaînes opératoires from prehistoric metalworking sites in northern and central Thailand and central Laos. In northeast Thailand, first millennium BC Phu Lon yielded evidence of mining and ore processing. In central Thailand, the Khao Wong Prachan Valley (KWPV) and the neighboring Khao Sai On mineral district were focal points of massive copper production beginning in the late second millennium BC. In central Laos, Sepon’s massive copper mines, ranging in date from circa 1000 BC well into the Historic Period, are yielding significant evidence, including for smelting. The discussion concludes by addressing the question “Where did the copper go and how and by whom was it used?” For example, the major lead isotope provenancing program suggests that KWPV copper was moving northeast to consumer sites like Ban Non Wat and the Vilabouly Complex copper was moving south to Ban Chiang.