Featured Stories
  • by Ardeth Anderson Abrams A couple of months ago, I attended an evening talk at the Penn Museum where movies of the Ban Chiang Project’s first director, Chester Gorman, were...1June 23, 2011

    Chet Gorman, Ban Chiang’s Wild Ginger Man

    by Ardeth Anderson Abrams A couple of months ago, I attended an evening talk at the Penn Museum where movies of the Ban Chiang Project’s first director, Chester Gorman, were…

  • The Ban Chiang Project has designated the academic year 2010-2011 as the Year of Ceramics (YOC), with activities to advance the scholarly study of the famous ceramics of Ban Chiang....0August 5, 2010

    Year of Ceramics

    The Ban Chiang Project has designated the academic year 2010-2011 as the Year of Ceramics (YOC), with activities to advance the scholarly study of the famous ceramics of Ban Chiang….

  • The University of Pennsylvania Museum and Dr. Joyce White, Associate Curator of the Museum’s Asian section, were honored by Her Royal Highness of Thailand, Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, on...1February 26, 2010

    Joyce White Honored at Opening of Ban Chiang National Museum

    The University of Pennsylvania Museum and Dr. Joyce White, Associate Curator of the Museum’s Asian section, were honored by Her Royal Highness of Thailand, Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, on…

  • Most long term archaeological projects have stacks of film photos stuck in a cabinet, set aside to be organized—some day. The thousands of images of pots, spear points, bracelets, bones, and excavation layers taken during decades of excavation and analysis in the Ban Chiang Project weren’t stuck in a cabinet. Instead, slides were organized in little boxes on shelves, and negatives and contact sheets were loaded into large and unwieldy loose leaf binders and stored in cardboard boxes. To find all the photographs taken of a certain pot required hours of hunting through dusty boxes, flipping through file folders, and deciphering twenty-year-old handwritten notes.0August 27, 2009

    The Ban Chiang Digital Image Project

    Most long term archaeological projects have stacks of film photos stuck in a cabinet, set aside to be organized—some day. The thousands of images of pots, spear points, bracelets, bones, and excavation layers taken during decades of excavation and analysis in the Ban Chiang Project weren’t stuck in a cabinet. Instead, slides were organized in little boxes on shelves, and negatives and contact sheets were loaded into large and unwieldy loose leaf binders and stored in cardboard boxes. To find all the photographs taken of a certain pot required hours of hunting through dusty boxes, flipping through file folders, and deciphering twenty-year-old handwritten notes.

  • Making sense of the remains of daily life is a particular challenge for a site like Ban Chiang. No intact houses were excavated, almost no activity areas were found. Instead, the remains of daily life consisted mostly of holes--probably for houses built on stilts. Spreads of small pottery sherds, animal bone, and other discarded artifacts were probably refuse "kicked around" on the ground.0August 24, 2009

    Illustrating the Splatt Theory

    Making sense of the remains of daily life is a particular challenge for a site like Ban Chiang. No intact houses were excavated, almost no activity areas were found. Instead, the remains of daily life consisted mostly of holes–probably for houses built on stilts. Spreads of small pottery sherds, animal bone, and other discarded artifacts were probably refuse “kicked around” on the ground.

  • An American college student's famous stumble over a tree root that led to the discovery of the Bronze Age culture of Ban Chiang also led to a complete revision of then-current ideas about the technological sophistication of prehistoric Southeast Asians. Before the 1970s, the prevailing scholarly opinion held that the earliest metal use in Southeast Asia was no older than ca. 500 BC. Southeast Asia was considered rather a technological backwater.0August 24, 2009

    Bronze from Ban Chiang

    An American college student’s famous stumble over a tree root that led to the discovery of the Bronze Age culture of Ban Chiang also led to a complete revision of then-current ideas about the technological sophistication of prehistoric Southeast Asians. Before the 1970s, the prevailing scholarly opinion held that the earliest metal use in Southeast Asia was no older than ca. 500 BC. Southeast Asia was considered rather a technological backwater.