Ban Chiang, Northeast Thailand, Volume 2: Metals

These three volumes, along with the forthcoming Volume 2D, the catalogue of metal and metal-related finds, present the results of a thorough, detailed study of the metals recovered during archaeological investigations in 1974 and 1975 at the village of Ban Chiang and three smaller sites in the northern part of northeast Thailand. At a time when little was known of Southeast Asian prehistory, the finding of very elaborately painted earthenware pottery vessels, probably prehistoric, at Ban Chiang stirred the interest not only of archaeologists, but also, unfortunately, from the standpoint of scientific investigation of the past, that of looters, dealers, and collectors of antiquarian art. In order to recover a sample of these vessels in their original depositional context, the Thailand Fine Arts Department and the University of Pennsylvania undertook one of the largest excavations of a prehistoric site carried out in Southeast Asia at the time. What subsequently caused added excitement in the media and the scientific community was the recovery of artefacts of iron that appeared to date to the second millennium BCE and of copper or bronze associated with dates in the fourth millennium BCE, perhaps as early as 3600 BCE, seeming to confirm similar early dates for bronze working from the nearby site of Non Nok Tha. Such early dates suggested the possibility of an independent development of metallurgy in Southeast Asia. Because of the importance of the excavation at Ban Chiang as a milestone in Thai and Southeast Asian archaeology, the site was later placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

PARTICIPATION OF LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS AT BAN CHIANG WORLD HERITAGE SITE

This paper deals with the empowerment of local residents and the economic development of the World Heritage (WH) site at Ban Chiang, Thailand; a prehistoric necropolis dating back to the first millennium BC. The site itself was added to the WH list in 1992, with the intention of safeguarding it from further looting by local inhabitants through the possible combination of restrictive laws and tourism-generated income. To ascertain the success of those policies three decades later, tourism activities and local community participation have been assessed in this study through GIS spatial analysis and a questionnaire survey based on the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS). The spatial analysis shows that no tourism activity has developed within the heritage property, which remains unvisited by tourists, while the questionnaire survey confirms that tourism and the related income potential for Ban Chiang residents are limited, but they are proud of the fact that Ban Chiang is a WH site, and strongly support tourism. The other negative aspects are the lack of political participation by the local community, and the lack of tourism skills, both of which limit any possible further development of the site. Based on such results, a theoretical framework for sustainable heritage development derived from Landorf’s research is elaborated in this study, employing all the various stages of sustainable heritage development and analysis tools from site assessment to the planning and development stages.