Preliminary Characterization of Earthenware Indicating Exchanges in the South China Sea at the End of the Prehistoric Era

Preliminary Characterization of Earthenware Indicating Exchanges in the South China Sea at the End of the Prehistoric Era Since 2005, the French-Thai archaeological mission in Peninsular Thailand has been excavating and surveying sites belonging to various environments, involving various social groups and revealing multiple functions. Those include Khao Sam Kaeo, a proto-urban settlement of cosmopolitan nature, and caves sites used as encampments or burials along the coast, such as Tham Tuay or Tham Pla (province of Chumphon), and insular sites such as Koh Din (province of Surat Thani). Some of the earthenware found at these sites share a common morpho-stylistic repertoire, amongst which the Sa Huynh-Kalanay-related type, that may be indicative of links to the South China Sea cultural sphere. This assemblage helps to address the question of interactions between the various groups present in, or in contact with, the Peninsula and how their circulation and exchanges participated in the fashioning of their cultural identity.