Earthenware with red painted decoration (storage pot) - 4347

Earthenware with red painted decoration (storage pot)
Ban Chiang period 2-3 BC, Udon Thani Province - Thailand
Dim: Ht 26 Dia 28 cm

* Used as grave goods, Ban Chiang ceramics were discovered in burials along with bronze and iron artefacts and personal adornments 
such as glass beads. Through what now appears to have been erroneous dating methods, the Ban Chiang bronzes and ceramics were dated 
to 3600 BCE. This would have meant that bronze technology, and hence civilization, began in Thailand and not in Western Asia as 
previously thought. Widely publicised in 'Time' magazine in 1976, the pots gained instant fame as proof of the earliest civilization
in the world. However, subsequent testing has given an average date of the 2nd century BCE. Similar dates have been given to
stylistically related artefacts found at Cambodian and Vietnamese (Dong Son) sites, re-iterating the inter-connectedness of early
settlements in mainland Southeast Asia. The black wares are an exception: thermoluminescence testing indicates they are much older,
dating to around 1500 BCE.