Ban Chiang

A settlement site in northeast Thailand with burial deposits from 3600 BC-1600 AD and which was occupied from c 4500 BC. Rice was grown and bronze cast according to the earliest records. Iron and rice paddy field cultivation began in the 2nd millennium. The basal burials are associated with incised and cord-marked pottery, copper and bronze artifacts. Levels dated to the late 2nd and 1st millennia BC have produced a variety of curvilinear painted red-on-buff pottery, together with iron, and bones of water buffalo. However, there is disagreement over the dating of Ban Chiang,, especially for the bronze, iron, and painted pottery.

Site of major importance in northeast Thailand, containing 4.5 metres of burial deposits spanning the period 3600 bc to ad 1800. The basal burials are associated with incised and cord-marked pottery, copper and bronze artefacts, and evidence for rice cultivation and domesticated cattle, probably in a regime of shifting agriculture. From levels dated to the late 2nd and 1st millennia bc, the site has produced a famous variety of curvilinear painted red-on-buff pottery, together with iron, bones of water buffalo, and palaeo-ecological evidence suggesting the practice of wet-rice agriculture. However, there is now disagreement over the dating of Ban Chiang, and from recent excavations at the nearby site of Ban Nadi it is apparent that the dates claimed for the appearances of iron and the painted pottery may be too old by a millennium or more, and the true antiquity of bronze prior to 1500 be is still unclear. See also Ban Kao, Kok Charoen, Non Nok Tha.