[HN Gopher] Metal artifacts in Southeast Asia challenge long-hel...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Metal artifacts in Southeast Asia challenge long-held
       archaeological theory
        
       Author : Vigier
       Score  : 42 points
       Date   : 2021-08-07 07:43 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (penntoday.upenn.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (penntoday.upenn.edu)
        
       | pkdpic_y9k wrote:
       | > archaeologists of a traditional bent tend to have a particular
       | thought structure called essentialism, which means that they do
       | everything they can to come up with a coherent story according to
       | a progressive view of social change. They keep looking for and
       | exaggerate specific evidence to fit that progressive model.
       | Southeast Asia is different. It offers an outstanding example of
       | bottom-up social change, of community-level decision making. It's
       | a chance to study prehistoric societies in a more granular way,
       | and it's a fundamental shift for archaeologists. We're still
       | early on in trying to promote this different point of view and in
       | using metals as a vehicle to gain this perspective.
       | 
       | Summary seems to be that testing the metals of different regions
       | showed evidence of community trading not facilitated by ruling
       | elites?
        
         | evv555 wrote:
         | >we can contribute to a larger discussion of how we all live in
         | this world going forward, to have a more successful existence
         | on this Earth, by studying ancient societies like those in
         | prehistoric Thailand that were enduring, resilient, and
         | peaceful.
         | 
         | Counterpoint to the quote: There's also an idealistic bent in
         | archeology/humanities where they do everything they can to
         | build a narrative of a Matriarchal Eden in the past. The
         | evidence is spotty at best and evidence like this are
         | exceptions that highlight norm.
        
       | wombatmobile wrote:
       | The site made headlines in January 2008, when thousands of
       | artifacts from the Ban Chiang and other prehistoric sites in
       | Thailand were found to be in the collections of at least five
       | California museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of
       | Art, the Mingei International Museum, the Pacific Asian Museum,
       | the Charles W. Bowers Museum, and the UC Berkeley Art Museum. The
       | complex plot functioned as a crime ring and involved smuggling
       | the items out of Thailand into the US, and then donating them to
       | museums in order to claim tax write-offs. There were said to be
       | more items in US museums than at the site itself.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_Chiang
        
       | contingencies wrote:
       | During some periods Bronze in much of Laos and far northern
       | Thailand was at least partly alloyed with tin from Gejiu in
       | Yunnan to the north.
       | 
       | In terms of logistics: geologically, most tin in northern
       | Thailand / southern Laos is much further west along the Myanmar
       | border or in deep mountains on the Laos/Vietnamese border which
       | (either requiring a long overland journey or an upriver trip
       | toward Ban Chiang / Vientiane) is a lot harder to access than
       | just floating down the Mekong from Yunnan.
       | 
       | In terms of supporting archaeology: Dong Son bronze drums.
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dong_Son_bronze_drums.JPG Note
       | the density of findings directly downstream of Gejiu in the Red
       | River valley which flows to Co Loa / modern Hanoi.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-08-08 23:02 UTC)