The Ban Chiang Metals Project Database

Using this web site

This page briefly describes the metal and metal-related artifacts from the prehistoric sites of Ban Chiang, Ban Phak Top, Ban Tong, and Don Klang in Northeast Thailand. For a fuller discussion of Ban Chiang and the Ban Chiang Project, go to the Ban Chiang web site. To access a searchable database of the provenience and analytical data from the metals and metal-related artifacts from the four sites, go to the searchable database. To download comma-delimited, Access 2000, or Filemaker Pro 8 versions of the databases to manipulate in your own programs, go to the downloadable databases. For access to the searchable Southeast Asian Archaeological Bibliography (9700+ references and counting), go to the Bibliography.

The archaeological sites

The site of Ban Chiang on the Khorat Plateau of northeast Thailand was excavated in the 1970s by Dr. Chester Gorman of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Pisit Charoenwongsa of the Thai Department of Fine Arts . The discoveries at Ban Chiang, along with those at the nearby site of Non Nok Tha, revolutionized the understanding of Southeast Asian prehistory, demonstrating that bronze metallurgy was practiced in a village setting as early as 2000 B.C., over a thousand years earlier than had previously been assumed. Because of its importance in Southeast Asian archaeology, Ban Chiang has been named a World Heritage Site.

Ban Chiang is best known for its beautiful prehistoric pottery, but archaeologists also have recovered literally tons of pots and potsherds, metal, stone, soil, charcoal, animal bone, and human skeletons.  Some of these materials have been thoroughly analyzed, such as the metals, the crucibles, and the skeletal remains. The results of the analyses of the metals and the crucibles are presented in the links on this site; for downloadable files of the skeletal data, go to human remains.

In addition to Ban Chiang, three other sites, Ban Phak Top, Ban Tong, and Don Klang, were test-excavated in the late 1970s by William Schauffler, a University of Pennsylvania researcher.

This site presents in a searchable form the provenience and analytical data for all the metal and metal-related (molds, crucibles, and slag) artifacts from the excavations of Ban Chiang (two separate locales), Ban Phak Top, Ban Tong, and Don Klang.

Table 1. Ban Chiang Chronology

Citation guide

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Table 2. Metal Artifacts

Citation guide

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The artifacts

The Metal artifacts from the four sites were classified into nine groups:

For definitions, see glossary (pdf).

Bangles, including rings, bracelets, anklets, and solid necklaces.

Adzes/tillers. All examples are socketed.

Blades, both socketed and tanged.

Points, both socketed and tanged.

Bells, most of which were small and designed to slip over a bangle or cord.

Wires/rods: straight lengths of metal of unknown function. Some wires are very fine, with diameters of 1mm or less.

bbbbbbMiscellaneous artifacts, ranging from hooks to cleft balls.

Flat pieces, obviously shaped and part of an artifact.

Amorphous pieces. Most were small and were probably the result of accidental splashing during casting or other fabrication procedures.

The Metal-related artifacts consisted of

Crucibles: small ceramic vessels used for smelting or melting metal.

Molds for casting artifacts. Only a few fragmentary molds were found at the four sites.

Slag: the siliceous waste product of smelting and melting. It results when non-metallic materials in the ore or metal run off and solidify.

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Property of the Ban Chiang Project, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

last updated 17 April 2008 EGH