Getting to know prehistoric Thailand…

Ban Chiang national museum

No, dear reader, do not be fooled by the title of this piece. This article is not about the strange political manners and customs in this country, but about the history of the area that we know today as Thailand. After all, this is one of the oldest inhabited regions in Southeast Asia.

Academics assume that hunter-gatherers lived and lived here as early as 60.000 years before our era. The Lampang Male, the fossilized remains of a Homo erectusskulls found in 1999 in Ko Kha near Lampang in northern Thailand are said to be between 500.000 and 1.000.000 years old… Although some academics have reservations about this find.

For decades it wasbon ton' in archaeological circles around this area as 'culturally disadvantaged' and of little interest. That changed, however, when some of the oldest traces of agriculture and metalworking in Asia were found in northeastern Thailand. That it took so long before people fully realized the archaeological potential with regard to the earliest history that can be found in the Thai soil, is largely due to the Thai themselves. When the historicizing scientific disciplines were still in their infancy, Thai archaeologists, historians and art scientists were mainly concerned with reconstructing the great Siamese past, which was still so tangibly present at sites such as Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, Lop Buri or Kamphaeng Phet. Historiography was then and even now in this country a discipline that had to underpin the identitarian discourse of the rulers and elite. Scantily dressed and cave-dwelling Stone Age hunter-gatherers, in the eyes of the latter, did not correspond to the ideal image they had of Thailand as a civilized nation….

Ban Kao pottery

The first targeted excavation campaigns on potentially interesting prehistoric sites are therefore a relatively recent phenomenon. It was not until the XNUMXs that work was done on this for the first time. However, few sites have been fully investigated and even fewer have been documented by publications. It was mainly foreign archaeologists who have focused on Thai prehistory in recent decades and have pointed out the importance of the finds.

Seeds and seed husks found in caves in northern Thailand are said to be directly related to the development of agriculture, which may have started as early as 9.000 BC. With the development of agriculture came the first settlements. It was no coincidence that these arose around the great rivers, the main mode of transport in prehistoric times. The first traces of human settlements can be found in the Mekong and Ping basins in particular. Via the Mun – which appears to be particularly rich in fossil finds – present-day Isan with the Khorat plateau was inhabited and the Thai Plain was probably also opened up. These settlements evolved into what can best be compared to the Western European Bronze Age ringforts: a concentration of residential units protected by ramparts and/or moats. In the valleys of the Mun and Chi alone, more than 200 of these settlements, which existed between 1.000 BC and the 7^e century, identified and located.

Interesting Iron Age settlements were found scattered across the country. From Non Nok Tha in Khon Kaen province, a site inhabited from 1420 to 50 BC, to Ban Don Ta Phet in Kanchanaburi province, where many artifacts from a cemetery dating back to 400 BC point to trade relations with Vietnam, India and the Philippines.

Dr. HR van Heekeren

The finds made in Ban Kao were purely coincidental. The Dutch archaeologist Dr. During the Second World War, HR van Heekeren was one of the thousands of prisoners of war who were deployed by the Japanese in the Thai jungle for the construction of the Burma railway, the infamous 'Railway of Death'. During the excavation work, he started collecting stones in 1943, which he believed could well be Neolithic tools. He even thought he had found some hand axes. Van Heekeren and his artifacts survived the war and he neatly brought everything to the United States for further research and analysis. Van Heekeren turned out to be right. The tools date from the Late Stone Age. This resulted in an archaeological preliminary investigation in which Van Heekeren himself participated in 1956, which was followed by a Danish-Thai expedition between 1960-1962. The excavation team found many artifacts during this period along the banks of the Khwae Noi in the vicinity of Ban Kao station and at Sai-Yok. The tools found turned out to have been manufactured 4.000 years before our era. In fact, they showed a striking resemblance to Neolithic finds from the Chinese Lung Shan… Van Heekeren published about this in 1962 A brief survey of the Sai-Yok Excavations. 1961-1961 Season of the Thai-Danish Prehistoric Expedition. In 1967, this Dutch pioneer, together with Count Eigil Knuth, published the reference work Archaeological Excavations in Thailand.

The province of Kanchanaburi turned out to hide a treasure trove of prehistoric artifacts. In the following years, finds were made by the Thai Fine Arts Department and the Faculty of Archeology of Silapakorn University in Bo Phloi, Phanom Thuan, Sai Yok, Don Ta Phet and Si Sawat Tha Maka, among others. Between 1977 and 1979, artifacts from the Hoabinhian Period were found during excavations in the caves of Khao Thalu, a mountain near Ban Kao. This name refers to the province of Hoa Binh in Vietnam where similar pottery was first discovered. In 1985, during an excavation at the 13^e century Prasat Mueang Sing in Sai Yok – once the westernmost point of the Khmer Empire – an important prehistoric burial ground was discovered.

Of exceptional importance is the site of Ban Chiang in Udon Thani province. It was discovered again in 1966, by pure chance, by an American sociologist who literally stumbled out of prehistoric pottery protruding over the ground. The finds made here proved not only that the ceramics found here, spanning a span of nearly 3 millennia, were of an exceptionally high technical and artistic level, but that this region was also one of the earliest centers of bronze production in the world. However, as is the case with most of the early peoples of Southeast Asia, the ethnic origins of the inhabitants of Ban Chiang are still largely unknown to this day.

Ban Chiang pottery

Despite the fact that the fascinating prehistory of these parts has been researched for more than half a century now, it is clear that this research is still in its infancy. Only a fraction of what the Thai soil still holds secret has been discovered. Only a thorough and systematic investigation of potential sites can remedy this, but Thailand lacks the finances, resources and manpower to do this job alone. We can only hope that changes sooner rather than later…

By way of conclusion, I would like to give you a few more of the most important sites related to the earliest history of Thailand. Let's start with the prehistoric collection of it National Museum (After Phra That Road 1). Bangkok. This museum institution, which was developed around the 18^e century Wang Na Palace and Budhaisawan Shrine is a must for anyone interested in the history, art and culture of Southeast Asia in general and Thailand in particular. The prehistoric collection is relatively small but offers a compact and complete story with some of the finest archaeological relics excavated in Thailand.

The National Museum on the edge of Ban Chiang gives a good picture of the finds that were made here. Within walking distance of the Museum, two covered sites can be visited that contain original burial pits with skeletal remains and pottery. They provided new insights into prehistoric burial rituals in this region. Especially the refined bronze jewelry and the beautifully decorated pottery with geometric patterns make a visit to the museum worthwhile. The clay molds that were found, which were used for casting axes, among other things, show that these are original bronze castings and not imported artifacts, which makes this site even more interesting.

National Museum Bangkok

In the Ban Kao National Museum at the village of the same name in Kanchanaburi province, you can not only admire the artifacts that were found in the vicinity of Ban Kao, but from all over the province. Including from the valleys of the Khwae Yai and Kwhae Noi and from the excavations in the caves of Khao Thalu. I found the exhibited prehistoric coffins made of hollowed-out tree trunks and topped by stylized human or animal heads very special.

The Phu Phrabat Historical Park in Udon Thani is not only a strange and strange place to walk around but also home to two of the oldest inhabited sites in the Mekong Valley. In this park, which is best known for the whimsical sandstone formations surrounded by numerous legends, there are two natural caves Tam Wua en Tham Khan either the Ossengrot and the Man cave in which one can find 6.000-year-old wall paintings…