[Paper] Aggrandisers and the first copper-base metallurgy in Southeast Asia

via Antiquity, 12 February 2024: At Ban Non Wat, Prof. Charles Higham discusses the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, highlighting social changes through grave goods and mortuary practices. This period saw the emergence of aggrandisers, who used exotic items and copper-base metallurgy to signify their status, though their prominence was short-lived as local metal casting developed.

The settlement of Ban Non Wat charts the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in north-eastern Thailand. Examination of grave inclusions and mortuary treatment at this important site allows insights into social change during this key period. Increasing complexity and the inclusion of exotic items in the mortuary treatment of some individuals early in the Bronze Age is suggested to show the rise of a lineage of aggrandisers who controlled access to these symbolic articles. But, the author argues, their elevated status was ephemeral, forfeited as local bronze casting became established.

Source: Aggrandisers and the first copper-base metallurgy in Southeast Asia | Antiquity | Cambridge Core