The
Ban Chieng artifacts are displayed in the second and the third floor
of the Chumbhot-Pantip Centre of Arts building. The main objective
of the exhibition is to enhance the knowledge and understandings in
the cultural heritages of the Ban Chiang communities. These include
painted pottery, the cord-marked pottery, bronze axe, bronze spearhead,
bronze necklace, precious stone bracelet and glass beads.
Its Significance
The Ban Chieng
cultural heritage reveals a 4000-year social development and technological
progress of a prehistoric agricultural communities (between 3600 BC
to 200 AD) from the Neolithic culture to the Bronze and Iron ages.
It can be considered a prehistoric culture with continuity that yields
exhaustive information on Southeast Asia.
Human skeletons, ornaments, and utensils found in burial sites reveal
stages of complex development custom, belief, and social structure.
Remains of animal bones and plant seeds, especially rice, are indication
of the way of life and agricultural advancement.
Pottery and iron tools
as well as bronze, iron and glass ornaments denote the technological
advancement as well as the existance of , trading networks and cultural
exchange with distant communities. The continuity of the Ban Chieng
Culture resulted from the inhabitants' ability to adapt to their environment-the
wetlands and the forest surrounding them. Utilization and adaptation
of the environment made this one of the most ancient sites for rice
cultivation. Technology and metallurgy as well as the craft of making
bronze and iron metallury here advanced to such a degree that Ban
Chiang rivals other archeological sites in the world.
Most importantly the
Ban Chieng Cultural Heritage has provided new information on one aspect
of human's development in the past-the widespread use of metallurgical
technology in prehistoric agricultural communities in the Northeast
of Thailand as early as 4000 years ago.