The Archaeology of Early Contact with India and The Mediterranean World, From The Fourth Century bc to The Fourth Century ad

Bibliographic Data

ID20076860
AuthorsBérénice Bellina (0000-0001-8790-1394), Ian Glover (0000-0002-8878-1694)
Year2023
Pages68-88
Publication date2023-04-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueSoutheast Asia (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781003416609-5
OpenAlexW4367314780
ISBN9781003416609
LanguageEN
Citations received18

From early in the first millennium ad, elite groups in many parts of Southeast Asia, except in the remote and forested interior of the mainland or in the eastern islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, adopted Hindu and Buddhist cults, political ideologies and ritual language as shown by the many religious monuments, images and inscriptions. The newly spreading cults of Buddhism and Jainism accepted the accumulation and reinvestment of wealth; a concept quite alien to the culture of the earlier Vedic period in which reciprocal exchange of the “prestige goods” type had been the normal method of distributing exotic and luxury items. This chapter emphasizes some of the most frequent and enduring materials found in late prehistoric archaeological contexts in India and Southeast Asia which provide evidence for this contact and exchange; especially pottery and bronze vessels and ornaments of semiprecious stone and glass, coins and seals

Ancient history · Archaeology · Geography · Mediterranean climate · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History