The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia

by Charles F.W. Higham

This book addresses the controversy over the origins of the Bronze Age of Southeast Asia. Charles Higham provides a systematic and regional presentation of the current evidence. He suggests that the adoption of metallurgy in the region followed a period of growing exchange with China. Higham then traces the development of Bronze Age cultures, identifying regionality and innovation, and suggesting how and why distinct cultures developed. This book is the first comprehensive study of the period, placed within a broader comparative framework.

Paperback

First published June 13, 1996

About the author

Charles Frank Wandesforde Higham ONZM is a British-born New Zealand archaeologist. In 1957, he was offered a place at St Catharine's College, Cambridge to read Archaeology and Anthropology. However, he first spent two years at the Institute of Archaeology, London University. In 1959 he went up to Cambridge, and studied the Neolithic Bronze and Iron Ages of Europe. He took a double first and was elected a Scholar of his college in 1960. He was provided with a State Scholarship in 1962, and embarked on his doctoral research on the prehistoric economic history of Switzerland and Denmark. He was awarded his doctorate in 1966. He was appointed Foundation Professor of Anthropology at the University of Otago in 1968, and began fieldwork in Southeast Asia a year later. He is most noted for his work on the Angkor civilization in Cambodia. Dr. Higham is a Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand; he is also a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of New Zealand, and an Honorary Fellow of St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge.