SEAArch - The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog

The ancient capital of Sri Ksetra, of the now-extinct Pyu people in central Burma may have existed even earlier than the conventional 5th century date it was supposed to have been established, and endured longer after its supposed fall to the Bagan kingdom in the 11th century. These assertions were made on the basis of similar artwork found in India dating three centuries earlier, and the number of Bagan-style architecture found in Sri Ksetra dating to after its supposed fall.

Archaeologists shed new light on old Sri Ksetra
20081112 The Myanmar Times
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Recovering Lost Gems of Myanmar’s Past: Collecting, Preserving, and Accessing Old Texts from Palm Leaves and Parabike Manuscripts
by Dr Thaw Kaung

Date: 23/10/2008
Time: 16:00 - 18:00
Venue: ARI Seminar Room, 469A Tower Block, Level 10, Bukit Timah Road, National University of Singapore @ BTC
Organisers: Dr Maitrii Aung-Thwin & Dr Titima Suthiwan
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The Myanmarese government intends to spearhead a memorandum of understanding between the 10 ASEAN countries to crack down on the illegal trade of antiquities. I’m sure most of the ASEAN countries would agree, but it would be interesting to see the response from Thailand and Singapore, seeing how they are not signatories to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.

ASEAN to crack down on antique smuggling
Myanmar Times, 06 October 2008
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Metal-age artefacts discovered in central Myanmar may provide an insight into the introduction of bronze and transition to iron in ancient times.

Bronze Age and Iron Age artifacts unearthed in Myanmar
Myanmar News.net, 18 August 2008
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… the meanwhile edition. Meanwhile? Yes, while much of the focus this past two weeks have been about the inscribing of the new World Heritage sites (including George Town, Malacca and Preah Vihear), life goes on in other parts of Southeast Asia.

photo credit: RabunWarna
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I know I’ve missed two weeks of rojak, and that’s because I’ve been struggling with access to the internet in my new home in Penang! But without much further ado, here’s this week’s salad of archaeological stuff culled from the web:

photo credit: 太鼓

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Happy New Year! Well, the Thai new year has just passed and we have a link to Songkran in Wednesday Rojak new year edition. This week, we also get whisked away to the people and architecture of Myanmar, sports in Thailand and some news for photography buffs.

photo credit: rwp-roger
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