Accession Nr.: 2015.120.1
Type: vessel; ceramics; pottery
Date of production:
1st century B.C.
Place of production:
Materials/Techniques: earthenware, painted
Dimensions: height: 14.5 cm
diameter: 13 cm
Probably a two-piece bowl on a high base, decorated in the typical Ban-chiang style (red, geometric, spiral motifs). It is possible that the upper and lower parts, made from fragments of pottery, were joined together just afterwards and also repainted.
The Ban Chiang find from northeastern Thailand was one of the great archaeological discoveries of the 1960s. Until then, prehistoric peoples in the Southeast Asian region had been considered by archaeologists to be the most backward in terms of bronze and iron use. Today's science suggests that this may have been one of the first settlements where our ancestors used bronze. The cold painted hard pottery in the picture, based on its decoration, can be classified as late Ban Chiang pottery.