| Abstract: |
The article looks back to the colonial beginnings of archaeology, and especially prehistoric archaeology in Southeast Asia and the people, mainly geologists and natural historians who were involved. Their research interests were conditioned by the intellectual frameworks of the time in Europeevolutionary, diffusionist and nationalist. After interruptions caused by the Pacific War and independence movements, European (as well as American, Australian and New Zealand) researchers resumed work from the late 1950s and different preoccupations influenced their fieldwork. Throughout the 1960s many local archaeologists received training overseas and more recently, through archaeological courses in their own countries, and have been taking the lead in archaeological research in the region with their own and often differing agendas. European and other overseas archaeologists working in Southeast Asia must henceforward take account of the new priorities that will vary from country to country.
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