SEAArch – The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog

Thailand is following up on the looted artefacts from Ban Chiang, found in the collections of four Californian museums.

Ban Chiang artifacts seized in US to be checked
Bangkok Post, 02 February 2008
Link no longer available

Thailand seeks more information on smuggled Ban Chiang artifact
The Nation, 02 February 2008

The way the artefacts were smuggled was by passing them off as replicas:

According to US officials, smugglers have been importing objects from Ban Chiang since the 1970s when Thai authorities started digging up artifacts from the site.

The smuggled antiquities had ”Made in Thailand” labels attached and were sometimes painted over to make them look like replicas to deceive US customs.

Perhaps one of the saddest thing about looted artefacts is the loss of contextual data. A Ban Chiang pot can fetch a few thousand dollars, I suppose, but for the archaeologist the location in which it was found, how deep underground, and its spatial relation to other artefacts (especially if it was associated with a burial) will yield much more priceless – and now irretrievable – information about its past.

Books about Ban Chiang:
- Ban Chiang, a Prehistoric Village Site in Northeast Thailand: The Human Skeletal Remains (Thai Archaeology Monograph Series, 1) by M. Pietrusewsky and M. T. Douglas
- The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia (Cambridge World Archaeology) by C. Higham
- Southeast Asia: A Past Regained (Lost Civilizations)
- Ban Chiang: Art and prehistory of Northeast Thailand by A. J. Labbei
- Ban Chiang: Discovery of a Lost Bronze Age by the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania by J. C. White
- Cognition and design production in Ban Chiang painted pottery by P. Van Esterik
- Ban Chiang prehistoric cultures by Y. Chin

Tags: Ban Chiang, looting, Smuggling, Thailand archaeology

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