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Sembiran and Pacung on the north coast of Bali: a strategic crossroads for early trans-Asiatic exchange

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2015

Ambra Calo*
Affiliation:
Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History & Language, The Australian National University, CanberraACT 0200, Australia
Bagyo Prasetyo
Affiliation:
National Centre for Archaeological Research, Jakarta 12510, Indonesia
Peter Bellwood
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, CanberraACT 0200, Australia
James W. Lankton
Affiliation:
UCL Qatar, PO Box 25256, 2nd Floor, Georgetown Building, Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar
Bernard Gratuze
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche sur les Archéomatériaux, Centre Ernest Babelon, CNRS, UMR 5060, Université d’Orléans, Orléans 45100, France
Thomas Oliver Pryce
Affiliation:
Préhistoire et Technologie, CNRS, UMR 7055, Maison René-Ginouvès, 21 Allée de l’Université, Nanterre 92023, France
Andreas Reinecke
Affiliation:
Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures, German Archaeological Institute, Dürenstrasse 35–37, 53173 Bonn, Germany
Verena Leusch
Affiliation:
Curt-Engelhorn Centre for Archaeometry, D6 3, 68159 Mannheim, Germany
Heidrun Schenk
Affiliation:
Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures, German Archaeological Institute, Dürenstrasse 35–37, 53173 Bonn, Germany
Rachel Wood
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Daley Road, CanberraACT 0200, Australia
Rochtri A. Bawono
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Culture, Udayana University, Jl. Pulau Nias 13, Denpasar 80114, Indonesia
I Dewa Kompiang Gede
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Jl. Raya Sesetan 80, Denpasar 80223, Indonesia
Ni L.K. Citha Yuliati
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Jl. Raya Sesetan 80, Denpasar 80223, Indonesia
Jack Fenner
Affiliation:
Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History & Language, The Australian National University, CanberraACT 0200, Australia
Christian Reepmeyer
Affiliation:
Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History & Language, The Australian National University, CanberraACT 0200, Australia
Cristina Castillo
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK
Alison K. Carter
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: ambra.calo@anu.edu.au)

Abstract

Studies of trade routes across Southeast Asia in prehistory have hitherto focused largely on archaeological evidence from Mainland Southeast Asia, particularly the Thai Peninsula and Vietnam. The role of Indonesia and Island Southeast Asia in these networks has been poorly understood, owing to the paucity of evidence from this region. Recent research has begun to fill this void. New excavations at Sembiran and Pacung on the northern coast of Bali have produced new, direct AMS dates from burials, and analytical data from cultural materials including pottery, glass, bronze, gold andsemi-precious stone, as well as evidence of local bronze-casting. This suggests strong links with the Indian subcontinent and Mainland Southeast Asia from the late first millennium BC, some 200 years earlier than previously thought.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd., 2015 

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