Excavating Southeast Asia’s prehistory in the Cold War: American archaeology in neocolonial Thailand

Ban Chiang Archaeological Site emerged as a pivotal discovery in Southeast Asian archaeology during the 1960s and 1970s. Excavations revealed an autonomous Bronze Age tradition, challenging the prevailing colonial narrative that depicted Southeast Asia as culturally dependent on India and China. This finding not only reshaped understanding of regional prehistory but also sparked international debate about the origins of world metallurgy, although later dating revisions complicated this narrative. The study by Peleggi (2015) goes beyond these archaeological insights to critically examine how American archaeological knowledge production in Thailand was intertwined with Cold War politics and Thailand's neocolonial relationship with the United States. It highlights the militarized context of excavations, which occurred amid the Vietnam War, revealing the complex interplay between scientific inquiry and geopolitical dynamics.

Peleggi, M. (2015). Excavating Southeast Asia’s prehistory in the Cold War: American archaeology in neocolonial Thailand. Journal of Social Archaeology, 16(1), 94–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605315609441