The Ban Chiang Update

of BAN C D H N IA E I N The R G Ban Chiang F

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a Newsletter for the

e U t i N S Friends of Ban Chiang E e S g C a UpDATE O rit World He Preserving a UNESCO World Heritage Site Issue #16 Spring 2009 the origins of the renowned Ban ship in Thailand, is online posting From the Chiang Cultural Tradition. of the Ban Chiang archival data The Luce-funded program and records. Stay tuned for more Director also seeks to develop Southeast information in future issues of The Asian human and institutional re- Ban Chiang Update. Penn Museum receives sources in archaeology. Thus the Luce Foundation Grant Middle Mekong Archaeological Thai Archaeology Project’s (MMAP) 2009 season in Challenge II (TAC-II) TAC-II Exploring the archaeology of Luang Prabang focused on train-

the great Mekong River has been ing Lao and Thai culture heritage 2 $200,000 one of the University of Pennsyl- managers and archaeologists in WE DID IT! vania Museum’s more unusual basic non-excavation skills need- again! endeavors in recent decades. The ed by today’s archaeologists—ev- Henry Luce Foundation is sup- erything from managing com- $150,000 porting Penn in this special pur- puter hard drives, to designing suit with a four year challenge grant exhibitions, to creating artifact of $300,000. collections databases. The Luce Grant for the Muse- Next year we will put those skills $100,000 um’s bold proposal, Strengthening to work on a new excavation in the Future of Southeast Asian Archaeol- Laos. During the third and fourth ogy: Investigating Prehistoric Settlement years of the Luce Grant, we will fo- $50,000 of the Middle Mekong Basin, provides cus on Ban Chiang research—an funds for both our Ban Chiang up-to-date study of our famous (on research in Thailand and Luang loan) Ban Chiang ceramics and Chall-o-meter Prabang research in Laos. Both establishing a GIS (Geographic July 2004-June 2008 projects seek new understanding Information System) database for Thanks to you, Friends, for of human settlement in this un- Ban Chiang-related sites in north- helping us reach our goal of derstudied part of the globe. We ern northeast Thailand. $200,000 last June! particularly want to understand Please help us meet the Luce We did it...again! After last Spring’s matching grant over the newsletter we received the needed next four years! Each year funds to complete our second Thai we need to raise $75,000. Archaeology Challenge (TAC-II)! These funds will particu- These funds have been quickly put larly support publication to work, especially on the Ban Chi- and digitization of the ang Digital Image Archive Project Ban Chiang records, pay- (please see Elizabeth’s article on ing for salaries, equip- page two).v ment, and special archival projects. The ultimate goal, in addition to pub- Joyce White, Ban lishing several books on Chiang Project Penn Museum scholar- Director Elizabeth Hamilton trains two Lao in database entry. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324 F•O•B•C• http://www.museum.upenn.edu/banchiang The Ban Chiang Joyce) then began scanning the pixel by 300-pixel version of the thousands of slides and negatives original scan and place that ver- Digital Image of artifacts and entering basic sion of the image into the data- Project data about each artifact and im- base. The data that need to be age into the database. It sounds entered are complex. Some of simple, even routine, but it isn’t. the scanned images have up to Your FOBC dollars The quality of the images varies nine separate artifacts in each at work! widely, partly because taking mul- picture, requiring our workers tiple exposures, or “bracketing,” to painstakingly identify exactly Most long term archaeologi- was common using film cameras. which artifacts are on the image cal projects have stacks of film Our workers usually choose the and where, so that someone in photos stuck in a cabinet, set best image among several dupli- the future can interpret the im- aside to be organized—some cates and variants and constantly age. Some of the original photo day. The thousands of images adjust scanning protocols. The log notes are incomplete, so to of pots, spear points, bracelets, initial scan produces a large digi- identify some artifacts, our work- bones, and excavation layers tak- tal file in TIFF format, but these ers search the shelves (even go- en during decades of excavation images are much too large (5-25 ing down to the rather spooky and analysis in the Ban Chiang megabytes each) to use in the Museum sub-basement) for the Project weren’t stuck in a cabi- image database. actual artifact and compare it to net. Instead, slides were orga- So, using Adobe Photoshop, the image, often black and white nized in little boxes on shelves, Sasha, Heather, or Stephanie and poor-quality. The excava- and negatives and contact sheets produce a much smaller 300- tion site and time period of each were loaded into large and un- wieldy loose leaf binders and Some of the gor- stored in cardboard boxes. To geous images in the find all the photographs taken Ban Chiang Digital Archives, soon to be of a certain pot required hours part of the Museum’s of hunting through dusty boxes, “Digital Spine.” flipping through file folders, and deciphering twenty-year-old handwritten notes. To protect, preserve, and make accessible the thousands of images housed in the Ban Chiang Project’s offices (including several other sites Penn ex- cavated in Thailand), Joyce and I began the Ban Chiang Digital Image Archive Project last June. I designed an easy-to-use File- maker Pro database compatible with the Penn Museum’s photo archive database, so that Ban Upper image: BCES Burial 40 Pot A 1934. Chiang photos can eventually and easily be incorporated into Lower image: various the Museum archives. A crack clay rollers from the team consisting of work-study site of Ban Chiang. student Sasha Renninger and volunteers Heather Saeger and Stephanie White (no relation to artifact need to be entered, not net. Each sheet and pocket or The archaeological project was easy when some images contain sleeve in each storage sheet is also among the very earliest to re- several artifacts from different numbered, and the exact loca- cord its findings in a computer. sites and periods, and the infor- tions of the image and the addi- More than thirty years ago, be- mation must be sought in other tional copies of that image are re- fore the PC had been invented, tables and databases. corded in our database. We can everything found from the Ban Then the workers enter infor- now not only open every image Chiang dig was entered into a mation about the image itself--its of Pot A 1943, but we can quickly computer database. In basement type, physical dimensions, digi- locate the physical image as well rooms of the Penn Museum, a tal size, scanned resolution, and by its storage sheet number, for corps of volunteers measured, magnification. If the image had future publication-quality scans. examined, and recorded each ever been used in a publication, In addition, we will eventually artifact. The data were punched the bibliographic citation has to put this database online, so that into IBM cards, coded as one or be tracked down and entered. scholars—and the Friends of Ban two digit numbers since in those This is not a job where the data Chiang—can look at any image days computers handled text in- entry people can turn off their of our artifacts and excavations efficiently. The cards were fed brains—it requires patience, at- they desire. into an IBM 370 mainframe, a tention, and intelligence. We The Ban Chiang Digital Im- six-foot-high machine with spools have been very fortunate in our age Archive Project is extraor- of magnetic tape on the front. mostly volunteer work team. As dinarily useful. Not only does it These tapes were the machine’s of April 27th, 2009, the number record and make accessible de- memory, as hard disks (let alone of images in the Ban Chiang digi- cades-worth of film images from floppies) had yet to be invented. tal photo archive has reached an this historic project, but it unites In 1990, all these data were impressive 4,169! Thanks to funds image and data, preserves the im- transferred from the old rolls provided by the Friends of Ban Chi- age in proper archival materials, of 8-track tape onto floppy disks ang, we were able to buy a higher and provides essential backups of (with considerable difficulty!), capacity computer and backup all the images. Thanks to contribu- which could be read by a then system, appropriate software, tions from the Friends of Ban Chi- “modern” PC database. The hire Sasha, our first worker and ang, the pictures produced by decades coded data were translated to trainer of our team of scanners, of photographic work on the Ban Chi- text; for example, the condition and purchase archival quality ang Project are safe, accessible, and of a blade was changed from “3” storage supplies. above all, usable.v to “Slightly corroded.” Year by What’s the reason for all this year, additional information was effort? A digital archive preserves added. As newer and better data- images for posterity and enables base programs became available, wider access and use. Anyone can Elizabeth Hamilton, everything was migrated up to easily search for all images, for Research Coodinator them. example, of Pot A 1943 from Ban The Ban Chiang Project is Chiang Burial 40, (see image on currently in the midst of upgrad- page two) in any format—slide, ing and expanding the database print, or black-and-white nega- Ban Chiang’s originally developed in the 1970s. tive. No longer do we need to Archaeo-Database As a trial, a couple of years ago, hunt through shelves, files, and Elizabeth Hamilton used File- folders (often sneezing from all Chet Gorman made sure Maker Pro to post the data from the dust). After our workers scan that his Ban Chiang excavations all metal artifacts from four of the image and enter the data, would be cutting edge. It was a the Penn Museum sites in Thai- they store the physical image in pioneering project in many ways. land, including Ban Chiang, on archival-quality, clean, numbered The most important aspect was, the Museum’s Southeast Asian polyethylene storage sheets that of course, the unearthing of a Archaeology Scholarly Web- can be hung neatly in a file cabi- previously unknown civilization. continued on page four MMAP 2009 by Beth Van Horn (BH), Elizabeth Hamilton (EH), and Joyce White (JW)

JW: The Luce-funded MMAP 2009 season in Laos wasn’t intended as an excavation season. The primary aim was to train thirteen Lao and two Thais in basic non- excavation archaeological techniques. When you say “archaeology,” everyone thinks of digging, but of course most of the information comes from a protract- ed and often tedious process of analysis. EH: Over the six weeks A File Maker Pro page taken from our database of images. of the season, a rotating cast of site (http://seasia.museum.upenn. mat. Paper records need to be teachers lectured and trained the edu/). Anyone can view images, scanned and added to the artifact students in computer care, data- photomicrographs, provenience database and, as you can read in bases, artifact drawing, raw mate- and other data from hundreds of Elizabeth’s previous article, scan- rial analysis, rock identification, metal pieces and crucibles frag- ning of images is ongoing. GIS, survey, and exhibit prepara- ments, and even download the The new Luce Grant will tion. data for comparison with other greatly assist in the digitization EH: But first the team had to get sites! and study effort, particularly in from Vientiane to Luang Prabang. In his five-year strategic plan, year 3 when the loaned collec- Joyce rented a minibus to take ten Richard Hodges, the Director of tion of Ban Chiang pottery will of us on the spectacular 8-hour the Penn Museum, named Ban be the focus of study. Chet Gor- ride up the ominously named Chiang as one of five Penn Muse- man would have been amazed at Route 13. A few years ago the um “key long-term research loca- the current use of computers in drive would have been too dan- tions.” He would like to see all of archaeology. Today all archaeo- gerous because of bandits; now data and records put online, thus logical digs are computerized in it’s just dangerous because there’s becoming part of the Museum’s various ways, but few have as long no guardrail. Luang Prabang is in “Digital Spine.” While the Ban a pedigree as Ban Chiang.v the mountains, and most of the Chiang Project has a head start in drive was spent careening around digitizing its artifacts in databases hairpin turns and observing tiny during the 1970s, much work re- clusters of wood and bamboo mains to be done to digitize and thatched houses, usually built migrate other classes of data and John Hastings, Ban by villages of Hmong or Khamu, records to a current online for- Chiang Volunteer which clung to the narrow cliff side of the road, and frequently BH: MMAP 2009 was the biggest EH: Our trainees worked hard, six half off. The inhabitants survive MMAP team in the project’s 5- days a week. I hope we taught them by slash and burn farming on year history—a diverse bunch of well, because they will be the future slopes so steep I couldn’t see how archaeologists, museum workers, of Lao archaeology. One immedi- they could stand upright on them, anthropologists, cultural heritage ate result was the formation of much less farm. workers, IT specialists, a geologist, the first countrywide professional BH: Although a challenge for the a geographer, and a Penn Muse- network of museum workers and carsick-prone, Route 13 is the only um volunteer (me). Twenty-two archaeologists in Laos. The train- way to get to Luang Prabang by people—Lao, British, Thai and ees came from museums and of- road, not just for us, but for huge American—participated in all or fices of culture and information Chinese industrial trucks and part of the 6-week intensive train- from all over the country that are tour buses. The mountains were ing in post-excavation archaeolo- normally so separated and polar- like no others ized that very lit- that I’ve seen Left: Beth tle contact takes before—dra- Van Horn place. The six matic towers and Elizabeth weeks they spent of tall lime- Hamilton tak- with the MMAP stone “karst” ing a rare day training forged that are the off to enjoy an a professional product of elephant ride network that can in the Khan hundreds of only improve in- river. Photo by thousands of teragency com- Katherine Arrell years of ero- munication and sion. cooperation in BH: Of course the future. one of the EH: Every day a draws of be- team of trainees ing an MMAP and staff went out volunteer is to survey, asking living in Lu- villagers if they ang Prabang, had seen artifacts a UNESCO and frequently World Heri- having to climb tage Site in its far up to reach own right. At- remote caves. We tractions in- Right: Later that added 12 new clude staying day, Katherine Ar- sites to the 57 in guest hous- rell scrubbing an found in 2005. elephant. Photo by es steps from I quite enjoyed Beth Van Horn. the Mekong, crawling around getting around on my stomach in town via the motorcycle-driven or gy disciplines. The main focus was the tunnels, but when they got too small-truck “tuk-tuks” (named for on helping to build Lao “human narrow, I sent in young slender the sound of a 2-stroke engine that capital” for Lao archaeological Lao to take over, much to their typically powers the gaily painted projects. Laos has no formal train- amusement. smaller ones), watching whole fam- ing for archaeologists, yet it is be- JW: Our headquarters in Luang ilies ride by on a single motorbike coming apparent that it has a rich Prabang was in an old French co- while we eat sticky rice at a roadside archaeological heritage that is in lonial bank building, complete stall, all while Philadelphia was un- urgent need of study and preser- with chickens and a goat with kid. der 8 inches of snow! vation. continued on page five “Grand Opening” on March 12th, potted plants appeared to spruce up the entrance, two elaborately- dressed and made-up young Lao ladies showed up just to hold the ceremonial ribbon, and dignitar- ies gave formal speeches. In addition, a huge contingent of school children came and were fascinat- ed by the exhibit, as well as a few westerners who were drawn by the banner posted nearby. Food and wine were enjoyed by all, and Lao dancing wrapped up the day for the stragglers into the evening. It was a very gratifying day for the photo by Beth Van Horn Van Beth by photo weary MMAP team. Trainee Phousavanh (Phou) Vorasing explains to Lao school children the JW: After the formal training sea- shell key he developed for the MMAP 2009 analysis and exhibit. son, we spent a few days in Vien- While the survey teams were out EH: One highlight of my off-time tiane. On one day, Elizabeth, having fun, other trainees and was the elephant-riding trip. Sev- Beth, and I, along with 27 staff trainers struggled with computer eral of us went to an elephant res- members of the Lao National tasks, endured periodic power cue camp, where elephants retired Museum, took a road trip across outages, organized the artifacts from logging work give rides to the Mekong into Thailand to visit from past and current MMAP earn their sugarcane and vet care. Ban Chiang and its spectacular seasons, and got lots of practice We first rode on a seat with a ma- site museum. New buildings and with digital data. After numerous hout, feeling very imperial. Then displays had been added since my virus outbreaks of the computer we rode bare-back. Elephants, it last visit a few years ago. The Lao kind, MMAP trainer Shawn Hyla turns out, are bristly and very tall, got to see what an up-to-date ar- from Penn Museum IT found out and they don’t have much to hold chaeological museum could look we could get wireless at our lab!! on to. They sway as they walk, and like, and I got to see that in one Being able to send the person at I felt certain my elephant would part of the Museum, the Smithso- the next table computer files by fall off the narrow path. We rode nian exhibition I curated 27 years email (via Philadelphia, Thailand, them into the river and scrubbed ago is still intact. The visit dem- Australia and more) in seconds— them with brushes, the elephants onstrated how archaeology can which for someone like me of having a great time ducking and transform a village into a thriving the carbon paper generation was trying to have us float off their town. Guards in the Museum told a magical experience—brought necks. Elephants have a great me that they remembered me that problem under control. sense of humor. Ha-ha. from when they were students at BH: In addition to my general vol- BH: We wrapped up this season the primary school across from unteer duties, I was the instructor with an ambitious exhibit in Lu- my house when I lived in Ban Chi- for Public Communication, based ang Prabang that summarized ang in 1979-1981. I asked are they on my career background in mar- 5 years of MMAP work in Laos. and the people of Ban Chiang keting and corporate communica- Much prep work was involved, now happy? “Oh YES!!” was the tions. Not only did I teach basic from class assignments on com- reply.v concepts, but I worked with the municating archaeology to the MMAP team to create and prepare public, to evaluating what ap- MMAP exhibits for Luang Prabang pealed to Lao versus western au- and Vientiane National Museum. diences, to massive translations Beth Van Horn, Ban Occasionally there was a day off… for this bilingual exhibit. At the Chiang Volunteer vAn article about The Middle copper smelting technology in Mekong Archaeological Project the Khao Wong Prachan Valley in LAB (MMAP) by Joyce et al. in Antiq- central Thailand. Their TAP study uity (2009) can be accessed on- will focus on lab analysis of smelt- notes line at http://antiquity.ac.uk/proj- ing crucibles from the site of Nil Conferences gall/white/ Kham Haeng, which dates from v the 1st millennium BC into the In early January, Joyce co-orga- vOther News early centuries AD. nized and presented a paper at Joyce gave the talk, “New Surprises the workshop: Dynamics of Human from Ban Chiang, Thailand,” for the In the Lab Diversity in Mainland Southeast Great Sites of the Ancient World lecture vKatherine Arrell, University of Asia in Siem Reap, Cambodia. series at the Penn Museum on De- Leeds in Great Britain, visited the Support came from a Wenner- cember 3rd, 2008. There were more lab twice in the fall to go over MMAP Gren Foundation Grant. than 100 attendees at this event. GIS with Joyce and Elizabeth. vPublications vHelen Lewis, University College Joyce C. White, Dating early Dublin Ireland, visited the lab bronze at Ban Chiang, Thailand. in December to work on MMAP In Pautreau, J.-P., et al., Eds. From publications and the database. Homo erectus to the living traditions: Chiang Mai, the 11th International vOne of our long-time volunteers, Conference of the European Associa- Fred Keith passed away November tion of Southeast Asian Archaeolo- 2008. Fred had been a volunteer gists, pp. 91-104, 2008. with the Ban Chiang Project since 1994. He was the best pot-recon- Joyce C. White and Stephen Lang, structer we ever had. When every- “The Asian Section”, in Arts of one else had given up on a pot, he Asia, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 96-120, found the pieces, did the gluing, 2008. and made the struts that put these seemingly impossibly broken pots Joyce C. White, “Bronze and rice: back together. Digging in the Middle Mekong When there were no more Basin”, Current World Archaeology, pots to reconstruct, Fred worked No. 30, pp. 50-55, 2008. Display case of BC artifacts and on a database of radiocarbon dates pots at the Great Sites of the Ancient from Southeast Asia, with over 800 Yanik Ruiz-Ramón, “Trench Fe- World lecture series at the Penn Mu- seum. Photo by Ardeth Abrams entries. Soon this database will be ver: Writing history five centime- available online in our growing ters at a time”, Penn Gazette, Vol. scholarly Southeast Asian Archae- 107, No. 2, pp. 14-15, 2008. vSoi Eyre received a postdoctor- al fellowship from the American ology data-sharing website. Council of Learned Societies for Online v v a project entitled, “Prehistoric Lo- A bittersweet goodbye to our Yanik has posted online two work-study student, Yanik Ruiz- videos taken from the MMAP cal Systems in Central Thailand: Analysis of a Ceramic Subregion-- Ramón. Yanik started at the Ban 2005 (footage taken by volun- Chiang Project in his freshmen teer Bill Henderson) and 2008 Its Stylistic Patterns and Technolo- gy.” She will be doing petrograph- year at Penn. He began as our bib- (taken by Yanik and Bill) seasons. liographer but soon was archiving Please enjoy this insider’s view ic analysis on sherds collected from her 2001-2002 PhD survey video footage from the MMAP into “A taste of Luang Prabang” 2005 season. Last year, Yanik was and “Tham Vang Ta Leow, Laos and other archaeological sites of the Chao Phraya River Valley. able to travel with the team to excavation 2008,” both avail- Laos and made his own video doc- able on www.youtube.com. Search umentation of the project. He will “MMAPvideo.” vThailand Archaeometallurgy Project (TAP) Awarded Ameri- be spending Fall 2009 in Morocco v can Philosophical Society (APS) studying Arabic and then graduat- Please check out the search- ing in the Spring of 2010. able Metals database which can Grant. Vincent Pigott and Oli be found at the Ban Chiang Pryce, a recent Ph.D. from the Institute of Archaeology, Univer- vSave the date! On the evening Scholarly website: http://seasia. of November 4th, 2009, Joyce museum.upenn.edu/. And our new sity College London, have been awarded an APS grant to continue is speaking on the discovery of Flickr address: http://www.flickr. Angkor. com/photos/pennmuseum/page6/. their investigation of prehistoric N e w in the F a c e s Ban Chiang Lab Your contribution will help us match the helping with the digital archiving $300,000 Luce Grant of images from the Ban Chiang Project. This involved scanning vLevels of Giving: slides and negatives of artifacts over $1000 Bronze Caster from the various excavations $500-999 Pottery Painter at Ban Chiang, and compiling $100-499 Iron Smith the scanned images into a new $25-99 Stone Carver database. Upon her return to England she intends to apply for vSend to: v Masters programs in Museology, Friends of Ban Chiang Heather Saeger has been work- ing as a volunteer for the Ban and to look for further opportu- University of Pennsylvania Museum Chiang Project since June 2008. nities to work in museums. of Archaeology and Anthropology Her first task was organizing the 3260 South Street BC offices with Sasha, but her Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324 most important work has been scanning and archiving the thou- Renew or Join FOBC sands of slides, negatives, and (Friends of Ban Chiang) photos of the BC Project. Heath- er also works at the Philadel-  Enclosed is my tax deduc- phia Museum of Art as a visual table contribution of $ . merchandiser for the Museum’s seven gift shops. She is very inter-  I would like to renew my sup- vConnie Ko is a freshman at port with a $ contribution. ested in museum collections and will be attending graduate school Penn and has been a work-study in the fall at George Washington student at the Ban Chiang Proj- please make checks payable to the University. Her studies will in- ect since September. She re- TRUSTEES OF THE clude museum collections man- placed Sasha Renninger as the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA agement and preventive conser- Ban Chiang Project Bibliogra- vation. pher. She enters new and looks up old resources on Southeast name Asia and compiles them in our bibliographic database, accessi- address ble at http://seasia.museum.upenn. city, state, zip edu/.

e-mail v v v v  I would like more information about the Ban Chiang Project. vStephanie White graduated in  I have changed my address. See new address above. the summer of 2008 with a BSc (Hons) in Archaeological Sci- FRIENDS of BAN CHIANG 3260 South Street If you can’t make your contribution ences from Bristol University in U.S. dollars, please contact us! Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324 (England). She spent ten weeks [email protected] www.museum.upenn.edu/banchiang