| Abstract: |
The technological analysis of ornament craft industries at Khao Sam Kaeo helps reconstituting what may have been the socio-political and economic context of this polity. It also unravels some socio-political processes at the core of the Maritime Southeast Asia cultural matrix which accounts for some of its cultural evolutions in relation to the region's insertion into the Maritime Silk Roads. The chapter begins with a presentation of the methodology and the corpus. The technological analysis showered there were four distinct technological groups (or technological traditions) whose on-site and regional spatial distribution allows interpreting in terms of social destination. Group 1, the "South China Sea siliceous type of production," combined traditional Indian high quality raw material and highly skilled Indian technologies with South China Sea-related style. It was located in the Southern part of the site. The manufacturing evidence for this type of production was localised at the bottom of Hill 2. Group 2, the "South China Sea jadeite type of production," combined South China Sea-related raw material such as nephrite and mica, their associated techniques and style. The onsite distribution of this type of production was localised on Hills 3 and 4 mainly. Group 3, the "South Asian-realted siliceous ornaments," was characterised by Indian raw material, highly skilled technologies with a style that included South Asian-related religious or auspicious symbols. The production evidence and the finished ornaments were both located on Hill 2, in the area that seemed to coincide with the cemetery, and on Hill 3. Group 4 was a later Southeast Asian type of production that comprised of a very small quantity of ornaments, hence difficult to characterise. It involved lower quality mass production techniques and mainly ubiquitous morphologies. It was produced on the top of Hill 4. Bringing together data from excavation, technological reconstruction and the sparse historical accounts relating to crafts and artisans, I then interpret the characteristics of the technological system evidenced at Khao Sam Kaeo. Analysis demonstrates that industries were hybridized associations of artisans, technologies and styles of various Asian horizons. The hybrid configuration of this production system is thought to reflect artisans' adaptation to specific demands. The politico-economic environment for the fruition/development/rise of such industry is interpreted to be the produce of an elite-attached production. This production system probably contributed to the political legitimisation of the trading elite, whether a ruler or a leading class. At Khao Sam Kaeo, craftsmen and industrial systems probably participated in stabilising the ruler's political position in relation to various emulations of internal and external origins. This emulation probably contributed to disseminating technologies, complex knowledge and beyond, advances amidst coastal urban elites. Such process could have played a significant role in the transfer of exogenous cultural traits. An important result of Khao Sam Kaeo's investigation is that it has revealed a sequence of cultural exchange between distant populations and the evolution of trans-ethnic South China Sea network culture shared by communities located along the fringe of the South China Sea. The evolution of industries and the strategies they may have served show how the 'otherness' was handled in the construction of social identity by this maritime network cultural matrix. For competing elites from early trading polities around the South China Sea, social identity was built by over-emphasising the attributes of otherness, attributes of which were deemed to be sophisticated and modern.
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