Missioni Archeologiche e Progetti di Ricerca
Conferenze 2022

Wannaporn Rienjang

Semi-Precious Stone Beads from Tha Kae:
Morphological and Technological Aspects

Thursday, April 28^th

4 PM (UTC +2)

The joint Italian-Thai “Lopburi Regional Archaeological Project” has carried out archaeological excavations in the pre-protohistoric site at Tha Kae (Lopburi province of Central Thailand) in the 80s-90s of the last century. Recurrent funerary items discovered in the late Iron Age (c. 0-400 CE) graveyard, included body ornaments made of various semi-precious stones, such as carnelian and agate beads, also popular in the Indian Subcontinent, and beads of ‘green stones’ (such as nephrite or serpentine) comparable to the ones common in the coastal regions of Southeast Asia, South China, and Taiwan. The ongoing archaeometric investigations by Dr. Rienjang -in the frame of a Memorandum of Understanding between ISMEO and the Thammasat University (Bangkok)- reveal that the morphology of the beads and the drilling technique observed so far in carnelian and agate beads from Tha Kae are comparable to the South Asian beads datable to the local early historic periods. Conversely, greenstone beads do not share the distinctive morphological and technological traits of South Asian beads, hinting at more easterly technological connections. These differences evidence the coexistence of two distinct manufacturing traditions in the Lopburi region during the early 1st millennium CE, thus pointing out the participation of the communities of central Thailand in the exchange circuit of luxury goods and of know-how within the Indo-Pacific cultural sphere. Dr. Rienjang will for the first time present to the public the recent results of her scientific analysis of the morphology and drilling techniques of semi-precious stones beads from Tha Kae.

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The event is free, via Zoom:
ID 878 4625 3198 / PASS 968164

For info: ismeo@ismeo.eu