The Development and Spread of Metallurgy in Southeast Asia: A Review of the Present Evidence

Abstract

Insignificant as it may seem, not only to the layman but also to professional scholars dealing with Southeast Asian affairs such as political scientists, economists, sociologists, and even historians, the Metal Age of Southeast Asia clearly is a force to reckon with, in the sense that it now seems to occupy everyone's mind in the various countries of the region just as much as contemporary issues do. The Metal Age, in other words, is linked with the present in Southeast Asia as nowhere else in the world, and has become a “contemporary issue” too.