Description
This comprehensive and absorbing book traces the cultural history of Southeast Asia from prehistoric (especially Neolithic, Bronze-Iron age) times through to the major Hindu and Buddhist civilizations, to around AD 1300. Southeast Asia has recently attracted archaeological attention as the locus for the first recorded sea crossings; as the region of origin for the Austronesian population dispersal across the Pacific from Neolithic times; as an arena for the development of archaeologically-rich Neolithic, and metal using communities, especially in Thailand and Vietnam, and as the backdrop for several unique and strikingly monumental Indic civilizations, such as the Khmer civilization centred around Angkor. Southeast Asia is invaluable to anyone interested in the full history of the region.
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors List of Illustrations Foreword Introduction 1. Southeast Asia: Foundations for an Archaeological History 2. The Origins and Dispersals of Agricultural Communities in Southeast Asia: Commencing In Southern China About 8000 Years Ago 3. Mainland Southeast Asia from the Neolithic to the Iron Age 4. The Archaeology of Early Contact with India and the Mediterranean 5. The Archaeology Of Pre-Angkorean And Angkorean Cambodia 6. The Archaeology of the Early Buddhist Kingdoms of Thailand 7. The Archaeology of Burma/Myanmar 8. The Archaeology of Viet Nam 9. The Archaeology of the Indianised States of Champa (Southern Vietnam) 10. The Archaeology of the Hindu-Buddhist Civilisations of Indonesia 11. The Archaeology of the Philippine Islands 12. The Archaeology of the Maritime States of Southeast Asia During the First Millennium AD 13. Indigenous Traditions and Extraneous Influences in the Early History of Peninsular Malaysia 14. Retrospect and Prospect Index
