Tham Ongbah

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Tham Ongbah ( Thai : ถ้ำ อง บา ), Ongbah Cave , is an archaeological site in western central Thailand on the upper reaches of the Khwae Yai River in the district ( Amphoe ) Si Sawat in Kanchanaburi Province .

Location and excavation history

The Ongbah Cave is near a lead mine; the lead has been alloyed together with copper , which enables easier casting. The area was looted by treasure hunters.

Finds

The 98 meter long cave contained around 90 wooden coffins in the form of boats. The shifts had been mixed up by looting. The coffins were made of hardwood and decorated with bird heads at each end. The lids were also made of hardwood and were connected to the coffin with grooves and tenons. The radiocarbon dating of the wood points to a period between 403 BC. BC and AD 25.

Per Sørensen, the leader of a Thai-Danish expedition that carried out excavations in Ongbah Cave 1960-62 and 1965-66, was also able to secure a group of four bronze drums , which were in pairs inside or next to the coffins and probably as sacrificial offerings served. Two more drums had previously come into the possession of the regional administration. The largest of these drums is 60 cm high and 70 cm in diameter. Such drums were first found in Vietnam at Dong Son and named after. One of the first Chinese reports on Southeast Asia from the time of the Sui Dynasty describes the years 586 to 617 and says: “The various Lao tribes make bronze drums ... before the battle, the leader calls the warriors together by beating the drum. “They are cast using the lost form method, which requires a sophisticated technique, and were probably acquired from outside. The pictorial decorations indicate that there must have been an aristocratic upper class here during the Iron Age, who were able to acquire such prestigious artefacts and to find them in their graves for the afterlife. Upstream and downstream trade can serve as an explanation, which is also likely due to the nearby ore mines.

Sørensen also found a group of five graves that had escaped the grave robbers, none of which were in a boat coffin. One grave contained five dead with their heads facing east, while three others faced northeast. Iron picks, knives, a spear blade, arrowheads and sickles were included. This group consisted of simpler graves than the first. So Ongbah society consisted of an elite and a class of commoners.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Per Soerensen: Prehistoric iron implements in Thailand . In: Asian Perspectives, 16 : 134-173 (1973).
  2. ^ Higham and Thosarat (1998), p. 142
  3. ↑ Per Sørensen: The Ongbah cave and its fifth drum . RB Smith, W. Watson (Eds.): Early South East Asia . Oxford 1979, pp. 443-456.

literature