| Abstract: |
In this section, bringing together different lines of evidence provided by excavations, studies of the environment and of the industries at Khao Sam Kaeo, I demonstrate that the settlement shows cosmopolitan and complex socio-political and economic characteristics, which led me to argue that the site fits the characteristic of a port-city and potentially an incipient city-state. These cosmopolitan and complex features are well-defined by the industries, the socio-professional quarters and the monumental constructions. Some of the industrial productions correspond to sets of artefacts shared among other trading groups on the fringe of the South China Sea. These materials are unevenly distributed within the site
some more exclusive materials concentrated in the southern part of the settlement. The socio-technical system, a reflection of the socio-economic and political context, is also complex. These industries have set up far reachin supply and distribution networks (well demonstrated by glass) and involved foreign specialists often implementing highly skilled techniques to produce hybrid products responding to the different levels of demands. Finally, this trade-oriented polity has proved to have been able to organise the food supply to host full time specialists, be it by importing partly from a more or less distant hinterland or by supporting an adequate agricultural base at the site and its immediate surroundings. Monumental constructions consisting of the enclosing walls, moats and water systems have been built, transformed and heavily maintained over the centuries. Enclosures and moats are the product of what can be interpreted as a coherent political agenda that was maintained over several generations. In conjunction with other lines of evidence, they are interpreted as indicative of a certain form of perennial centralised power and of a shared sense of civic community. The walls had a symbolic role giving a sense of common identity for the community, a political role in attesting a form of authoirty able to control considerable labour resources for their erection and maintenance as well as practical purposes (to control floods and soil erosion, and agricultural purposes). No early settlements in South and Southeast Asia provides suitable comparisons to Khao Sam Kaeo. In Mainland Southeast Asia, there is a lack of understanding of the exact function and internal organisation of contemporary moated sites. Co Lao is an exception
however, Nam C. Kim defines Co Lao as a city, the seat of an indigenous agrarian-based and militarist type of State. In maritime contexts, contemporary examples, both in South (Arikamedu, Pattanam, etc.) and Southeast Asia (Khuan Lukpad, Kuala Selinsing, Air Sungihan, Giong Ca Vo, etc.), fail to display the same level of information regarding the general sites configuration, internal organisation and activities carry out there (sic)
they also do not provide a clear picture of a cosmopolitan settlement and comparable level of socio-political and economic complexity. The elements allow arguing that the site fits the characteristic of a port-city. In this final section, I argue that Khao Sam Kaeo represents the earliest port-city known so far in the maritime region. Notwithstanding the current lack of data on the hinterland, Khao Sam Kaeo, with its specific socio-political characteristics and its trading network culture, could very well be seen as an incipient city-State of the South China Sea that thrived from the 4th to the 2nd or 1st century BC.
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