Studies in Global Archaeology 6 And Through Flows the River archaeology and the pasts of Lao Pako Anna Källén African and Comparative Archaeology Department of Archaeology and Ancient History Uppsala University Uppsala 2004 Doctoral thesis defended at Uppsala University 2004 ABSTRACT Källén, A. 2004. And Through Flows the River: Archaeology and the Pasts of Lao Pako. Studies in Global Archaeology 6. Uppsala. 336 pp, 105 figures, 4 appendices. ISSN 1651-1255, ISBN 91-973212-4-9. This is a story about Lao Pako. Lao Pako is located on a small hill on the southern bank of the river Nam Ngum in central Laos. Four seasons of archaeological fieldwork have yielded considerable amounts of pottery, metallurgical remains, glass beads, stone artefacts, spindle whorls as well as other material and structural information that have created a foundation for interpretation. The archaeological inter- pretation presents Lao Pako as a place where people came to perform rituals c. 1500 years ago. In these rituals, sophisticated combinations of pottery depositions, infant burials and iron production created a narrative about what it means to be in the world. Things in and on the ground created, and continue to create, non-verbal sentences about life and death, fertility, decay and worldly reproduction. The archaeological interpretation is, however, not the only valid story about Lao Pako. This is a place where spirits are; it is also a tourist resort and a national treasure. These other stories all work to create Lao Pako as a place of interest and are used in this thesis to define the archaeological story, and to visualize the aims and agendas that are inherent in the production of archaeological knowledge. Using the conceptual apparatus of postcolonial and other critical theory, the thesis aims to criti- cally deconstruct the archaeology performed by the author and others. It entails an explicit critique of the deterministic temporal unilinearity that is inherent in the archaeological narrative of the evolution of humankind, as well as against essentialist notions of culture and the dissociation of the past as exotic otherness. Thus, the different stories about Lao Pako demonstrate the need to critically revise the role of archaeology in a postcolonial world, and create archaeological stories by which we are touched, moved and disturbed, without resorting to imperialist notions of time and progress. Keywords: Lao Pako, Laos, Mainland Southeast Asia, archaeology, excavation, ceramics, iron production, ritual, gender, the past, time, postcolonial, critical theory Anna Källén, African and Comparative Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Box 626, 751 26 Uppsala, Sweden. ISSN 1651-1255 ISBN 91-973212 ©Anna Källén Studies in Global Archaeology 6 Series Editor: Paul J. J. Sinclair Editorial committee: Christina Bendegard and Paul J. J. Sinclair Layout and cover design: Anna Källén Cover illustration: the river Nam Ngum at Lao Pako (photo: Anna Karlström), Ding Saynjavongnak and Kanda Keosopha with J221 in February 2003 (photo: Anna Källén) Insert: photgraphs and drawings by Anna Källén unless otherwise stated. Lao translations: Kanda Keosopha Published and distributed by: African and Comparative Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Box 626, 751 26 Uppsala, Sweden Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Stockholm 2004 For Gunnar and Bengt CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................9 A NOTE ON TRANSLATION ...................................................................................... 13 INTRODUCTION: And Through Flows the River ....................................................... 15 OUT-SET: A Postcolonial Archaeology ............................................................................ 25 Postcolonial theory in archaeology 26 Discipline and critique 30 UPSTREAM: A History of Research ................................................................................ 35 Olov Janse and the birth of modern archaeology in Mainland Southeast Asia 36 Art and archaeology in Laos: an example from the 21st century 42 Postcolonial archaeology in Africa: a briefing 45 Ban Chiang and the Iron Age of Mainland Southeast Asia 48 Plain of Jars: archaeology from Indochina to the Lao PDR 57 WITHIN THE WHIRLPOOL OMNIUM GATHERUM: À͉-¾-¯¾-¡-Á´ÈÌ-¹ñ¨-¤? – What is Lao Pako? .................... 66 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS: Aims, Methods and Outcomes 75 Excavation in 1995 75 Survey in 2000 76 Excavations in 2002-2003 78 THE EARTH: Stratigraphy, Soil and Dating .................................................................... 81 Soil details 81 Stratigraphy and excavation 82 Layers 83 Dating 85 Stratigraphic conclusion 85 THE THINGS....................................................................................................................... 87 The Lao Pako material culture 91 Ceramics 92 Complete vessels 104 Textile production 153 Beads 155 Metal and metallurgy 158 Stone 164 CONTEXTS ......................................................................................................................... 167 The ground 168 Pits 171 Ceramics 171 Burials 174 Textile production 178 Metallurgy 178 Curious depositions 179 RITUAL SPACE.................................................................................................................. 181 Ritual as a conceptual tool 182 Embodied pots 185 Iron in other words 191 LAO PAKO 1500 YEARS AGO: An Archaeological Synthesis......................... 195 Looking out 195 Insights 201 CREATING REFLECTIONS ....................................................................................... 209 Views, viewpoints and interviews 209 Laos and the Lao PDR cultural heritage management 211 Ban Pako tourist resort 218 Ban Nabong and Ban Phonkham 223 CONFLUENCE ................................................................................................................. 233 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 237 ¦½ÍЮ¹¨Ó 269 NOTES .................................................................................................................................. 253 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 257 APPENDIX I: FINDLIST LAO PAKO 1995 – 2003 ........................................... 271 APPENDIX II: PLAN DRAWINGS .......................................................................... 287 APPENDIX III: STRATIGRAPHY ............................................................................ 305 APPENDIX IV: THIN SECTION ANALYSIS – by Anders Lindahl................ 317 PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is with a mixed feeling of relief and nostalgic sadness that I now find myself at the end of this road. Since its beginning, I have walked a long way, sometimes in sunshine but at other times the road has seemed endless and lonely. I know now that I would not have reached the end of it without friends and colleagues who pushed me forward, who walked with me for a while, forced me to choose when I reached junctions, encouraged me to stop and rest when needed, and who built bridges across unexpected rifts. The space here is not enough to mention all who have so generously contributed to the becoming of this book, but I will take the opportunity to say a few thanks. Before anything else, I want to say a very special thanks to Anna Karlström, who has walked beside me from the beginning to the end of the road, always there as a stimulating colleague and my best friend. Thank you, Anna. At the very beginning of everything, Per Sørensen and Göran Burenhult helped me up on the road. It is now far back in memory, but I will always be indebted to them for that help, and to Inger and Sven Österholm for teaching me the art of archaeological excavation. Through the years that followed I met and interacted with a number of people who have, consciously or not, been in- spiring and influential to the shape this project has taken. Mats Burström made me open my eyes to the politics of archaeology. Ian Glover has always been supportive, encouraging and a good friend despite our constant differences of opinion. Magnus Fiskesjö and the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stock- holm have given me many opportunities to broaden my professional perspectives, as have Paul Wallin and Helene Martinsson Wallin at the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo. In the most generous way, Michael Rowlands has discussed themes and issues that are at the core of this thesis, and our conversations have been forma- tive in my thinking. Vincent Pigott has been helpful and supportive with his expertise on Southeast Asian metallurgy, and Anders Lindahl stepped in at a stressful moment and helped out with crucial ceramic analyses. Joyce White has been a knowledgeable discussion partner on the late prehistory of the Khorat Plateau, and taught me much about being a female foreign archaeologist in South- east Asia. On the same matter I have also benefited greatly from my contact with Rasmi Shoocongdej. I owe more than I can say to colleagues and friends in Laos who shared the production of this thesis with me. The Ministry of Information and Culture, and Department of Museums and Archaeology have been my cooperation partners throughout the years, and the archaeological investigations at Lao Pako could 9 AND THROUGH FLOWS