Southeast Asia

Author: Bellwood
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Paperback
Number of Pages: 376
Release Date: 03-04-2006
EAN: 9780367239503
Languages: English

Details:
This comprehensive and absorbing book traces the cultural history of Southeast Asia from prehistoric times, especially focusing on the Neolithic and bronze-iron age periods, to the major Hindu and Buddhist civilizations around AD 1300. Southeast Asia has recently garnered significant archaeological attention for its role in early sea crossings, as the region of origin for the Austronesian population dispersal across the Pacific from Neolithic times. It also highlights the development of archaeologically-rich Neolithic and metal-using communities, particularly in Thailand and Vietnam, and serves as the backdrop for monumental Indic civilizations like the Khmer civilization centered around Angkor.

This book is invaluable to anyone interested in exploring the full history of the region.

About the Author:
Ian Glover is Emeritus Reader in Southeast Asian Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He has conducted excavations in East Timor, Sulawesi, Western Thailand, and Central Vietnam, covering periods from Late Pleistocene cave deposits to Iron Age cemeteries and the emerging Cham Civilization of Central Vietnam. His academic interests include early technologies of bronze, iron, and glass, as well as the effects of inter-regional trade on cultural evolution.

Peter Bellwood is Professor of Archaeology at the Australian National University in Canberra. Since 1967, he has undertaken field research in Southeast Asia (Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines) and numerous Polynesian islands. He specializes in the archaeological and linguistic aspects of Austronesian prehistory in Southeast Asia and Oceania and the prehistories of early farming populations worldwide.