Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29048
Title: The Southeast Asian water frontier: coastal trade and mid-fifteenth c. CE "hill tribe" burials, southeastern Cambodia
Contributor(s): Grave, Peter  (author)orcid ; Kealhofer, Lisa  (author)orcid ; Beavan, Nancy (author); Tep, Sokha (author); Stark, Miriam T (author); Ea, Darith (author)
Publication Date: 2019-09
Early Online Version: 2019-05-04
DOI: 10.1007/s12520-019-00842-3
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/29048
Abstract: 

In mainland Southeast Asia, the so-called water frontier unified an otherwise geographically broad and culturally disparate economic network of long-, medium-, and short-distance trade of the 14th–17th century CE "Age of Commerce." Focus on the rise of the larger port towns supporting this burgeoning maritime trade (e.g., Ayutthaya, Melaka, Hoi An) has overshadowed smaller maritime operations that must have serviced less regulated coastlines. In this paper, we evaluate the evidence of likely supply lines for relatively remote sites in the Southern Cardamom Ranges of southwestern Cambodia. We present the results of a geochemical analysis of ceramics from two contemporary and short-lived assemblages: comprehensively dated mid-15th c. to mid-17th c. CE burial complexes in the Cardamom Mountains, and a dated shipwreck (Koh S'dech) recovered from waters off the adjacent coastline. We compare the shipwreck assemblage with other wreck assemblages to contextualize it within larger maritime exchange patterns. The Koh S'dech wreck assemblage appears typical of a Southeast Asian short-haul coastal trader of this period, with a cargo consisting of a range of utilitarian household ceramics: large, medium, and small glazed stoneware storage jars, earthenware cooking pots, stoves and mortars, and "tableware" bowls. Comparison of burial, shipwreck, and reference ceramic compositional data confirms the jars and fine wares predominantly came from multiple production centers in Central and Northern Thailand. The few Angkorian jars identified in the burials were evidently heirlooms from what was, by the mid-15th c. CE, a likely defunct Khmer production complex east of Angkor. The results of this provenience analysis highlight (a) the Cardamom burials as an example of previously undocumented unregulated coastal interaction and (b) the relatively sophisticated and coordinated market-oriented strategies of inland ceramic producers at this time. For mainland Southeast Asia, the water frontier integrated not only ethnically diverse maritime port communities, but also those in more remote inland regions.

Publication Type: Journal Article
Grant Details: ARC/DP140103194
Source of Publication: Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 11(9), p. 5023-5036
Publisher: Springer
Place of Publication: Germany
ISSN: 1866-9565
1866-9557
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 210103 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas
210102 Archaeological Science
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 430102 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas
430101 Archaeological science
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 950502 Understanding Asia's Past
970121 Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 130702 Understanding Asia’s past
280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

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