| Abstract: |
The archaeological site of P'ong Tuk, located in Kanchanaburi Province, west-central Thailand, was subject to field investigations by George Coedès in 1927 and H. G. Quaritch Wales in 1936. Both investigations uncovered substantial material remains, including ritual objects and architecture, used to help define an early Buddhist "Dvaravati" cultural expression in the region of central Thailand. These early investigations, however, while regularly cited in the scholarly, were brief and minimally reported. In 2008 the author initiated a comprehensive reevaluation of the Coedès and Quaritch Wales data in light of new concepts and comparative evidence for the Dvaravati phenomenon. This new research benefitted from the "rediscovery" of Quaritch Wales' unpublished field notes for his work at P'ong Tuk, and from a field reconnaissance of P'ong Tuk in January 2008. This re-evaluation and integration of site data resulted in the documentation of new objects and features at P'ong Tuk, and a more in-depth evaluation of older data. It also supported the identification of several new cultural patterns at the site, as well as new avenues for future research, all of which tend to coincide with wider issues extant for the conceptualization of Dvaravati.
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