Bérénice Bellina / UMR TEMPS / CNRS

This roundtable focuses on later Southeast Asian prehistory and protohistory, ranging from c. mid-Holocene to c. first millennium AD/CE, depending on location.

Programme and abstracts

Europe-based researchers have a long tradition of Southeast Asian archaeological scholarship. A great deal has changed since our community last met in 2017 at EurASEAA in Poznan, Poland—both in Europe and in Southeast Asia, in academic and political spheres, and with global cultural shifts. We believe that it is essential that our community continues to meet to promote scientific exchanges and discuss thematic developments and prospects for the discipline and students. Our Parisian meeting is open thematically and the geographical coverage includes all ASEAN nations, as well as interactions with neighbouring regions and peoples. The chronological span of focus for this roundtable is later prehistory and protohistory, which we consider to possibly range from c. mid-Holocene to c. first millennium AD/CE, depending on location. Research discussed here may be field-based, analytical, ethnoarchaeological, experimental and/or theoretical. The aim of the meeting is to learn what everyone has been up to since 3 BC (Before Covid), and whether any new scholars have joined our ranks. The 8th and morning of the 9th will be devoted to presentations of current research projects. On the afternoon of the 9th we will hold a round-table discussion on developments in the discipline, training, themes, and future plans, including the dates and organisation of future meetings. We plan to publish a special issue, a state-of-the-art of European collaborative archaeological research in Southeast Asia.

Meeting schedule

July 8, 2024

10:00-13:00 Welcome and morning session: Prehistoric Island Southeast Asian occupations
1. Shell middens, post(?)-pits, feasting, cremation: mid-Holocene ritual space at the rockshelter of Ille Cave, El Nido, Palawan, Philippines. Helen Lewis, Victor Paz et al. (TBA)
2. Recent research at Guri Cave Hermine Xhauflair (presented by Aude Favereau)
3. Lepu Kina: a glimpse into the Neolithic of the Sunda Islands. Jean-Christophe Galipaud and Mélanie Ligot

Austronesian and Austroasiatic expansions

4. The Austronesian expanding colonisation in Batanes and Lallo, Cagayan Valley, Philippines. Kazuhiko Tanaka, Ame Garong, Kaishi Yamagiwa, Eusebio Z. Dizon and Okuno Mitsuru
5. A new model of the origin and spread of the Austroasiatic languages and peoples. Roger Blench (recorded presentation)

13:00-14:00 Lunch at INHA

14:00-17:00 Afternoon session: Ethnographic approaches and archaeological methods in Island Southeast Asia
6. What do locals know, think they know, and what does it teach us? The case of caves-related knowledge in a rural community. Sébastien Plutniak
7. A critical look at ethnographic and archaeological survey methods. The case study of Linapacan heritage (Palawan, Philippines). Zuzanna Kowalczyk
9. Cosmology, burials and social representations among the Austronesian Lebbo’ in Berau, East Kalimantan,Indonesia. Antonio Guerreiro
9. Archaeobotany in Southeast Asia: an overview. Cristina Castillo

Dinner

July 9, 2024

10:00-13:00 Morning session: Late prehistoric and early historic exchanges
10. Exchange of copper-base metals and glass beads in southern Sumatra since the end of prehistoric times and into the first millennium. Harry Octavianus, Bérénice Bellina, Laure Dussubieux, Thomas Oliver Pryce, and Mélissa Cadet
11. Maritime networks in light of a comparative study of Roman and Roman-inspired materials in South and Southeast Asia and China. Krisztina Hoppál, Bérénice Bellina, Ariane De Saxcé and Laure Dussubieux
12. Metal connections across the South China, Sulu and Celebes Seas, based on eleven new copper-base samples from Palawan, Philippines. Thomas Oliver Pryce
13. Were the early cosmopolitan ports of the Thai-Malay peninsula really places of cultural exchange? A review of twenty years of research into ornaments and ceramics from the first ports of Southeast Asia. Bérénice Bellina and Aude Favereau

13:00-14:00 Lunch at INHA

14:00-17:00 Afternoon session: Roundtable discussion