Paper short abstract:

This paper presents results from recent research into clay stamps excavated from sites in Vietnam and Thailand almost fifty years ago which indicate that Mainland Southeast Asia was involved in trade with Eurasia much earlier than previously held.

Paper long abstract:

In 1976, Vietnamese archaeologists recovered a number of deeply excised clay stamps during their excavations of Hoa Loc, a terminal Neolithic site in northern Vietnam. Similar artefacts have also been found at Iron Age sites in northern Thailand and Laos but their function has long been obscure. It has been proposed that these stamps were used to decorate cloth but results of previous experiments were never conclusive. This paper reports on new research into these enigmatic artefacts which suggests that Mainland Southeast Asia was far from a backwater but involved in extensive exchange networks as early as the transitional Neolithic. The research findings contribute to a growing body of interaction studies that are providing new evidence for the process of international integration based on the exchange of products and ideas known as globalization.