Southeast Asian Archaeology

17/08/2026

New Evidence from the Southeast Asian Borderlands

The latest Southeast Asian Archaeology newsletter is out!

This week’s research takes us from the rock-art landscapes of Yunnan to bronze drums in Guangxi, the hydraulic landscape of Angkor, and the mysterious standing stones of Hintang in Laos.

Among the highlights:

• New uranium-thorium dates show that figurative rock art at Mangguan was present at least 4,220 years ago.
• Researchers test generative AI as a way of digitally reconstructing damaged bronze-drum imagery.
• New work on Angkor looks beyond simple “climate collapse” explanations to the interplay between infrastructure, communities and resilience.
• Lao-Australian excavations at Hintang provide new clues about how its standing stones were erected and used.

There is also the usual round-up of archaeology and heritage news, opportunities and events from across Southeast Asia and its neighbouring regions.

I’ve also started making shorter visual explainers of new research on Instagram, so do follow SEAArch there if that sounds useful.

Read the newsletter here: https://bit.ly/4gkuvgn

17/08/2026

17/08/2026

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱?

📣Join us as Iman Nagy offers a broader archaeological perspective on the rock art of Lamanok and explores its place within the wider tradition of rock art across Southeast Asia.

More than a lecture, this is an invitation to look at Lamanok differently to see the landscape not simply as a collection of archaeological features, but as a living geocultural landscape shaped by generations of human experience, memory, movement, belief, and connection.

The National Museum of the Philippines Bohol, in partnership with the Lamanok Heritage Management Initiative (LaHMI), the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Council (BACH Council), and the Bohol Center for Culture and Arts Development (BCCAD), invites the public to an afternoon of learning and conversation through

𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗞: 𝗕𝗘𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗𝗦 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲

We are honored to welcome Iman Nagy, Ph.D. Candidate in Archaeology at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA. A landscape archaeologist, field researcher, and cultural surveyor, Iman brings more than a decade of archaeological experience across Northeast Africa, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia. Her work explores how people move through, experience, and create meaning within landscapes, with particular interests in prehistoric rock art, rock inscriptions, and landscape archaeology. Her research and fieldwork have taken her across Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

📅 18 August 2026 | Tuesday
🕑 2:00–5:00 PM
📍 National Museum of the Philippines Bohol

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Come, listen, learn, and journey with us BETWEEN WORLDS - where the marks on stone become stories, landscapes become memory, and heritage continues to live.

13/08/2026

Located in northern Laos, the Xieng Khouang Plateau is home to one of the world's most puzzling archaeological sites: the Plain of Jars.

The name comes from the hundreds of stone “jars” scattered around the area. For nearly a century, archaeologists have pondered their purpose, suspecting they were funerary urns, as some had been found with burnt bones and ashes. Now a team of researchers exploring the site has found a hefty, megalithic stone jar containing the remains of at least 37 people—from a toddler to adults—that dates to more than a thousand years ago.

Learn more: https://on.natgeo.com/XBjZRD

10/08/2026

10/08/2026

This week’s Southeast Asian Archaeology newsletter is out.

The main story comes from Bawean Island in the Java Sea, where a new article looks at tambek: stone tidal fish weirs built in the intertidal zone to trap fish as the tide moves in and out.

The researchers recorded 54 of these structures using field survey, drone photography, GIS mapping, interviews and historical records. What might look like simple stone arrangements are actually part of a wider maritime cultural landscape, preserving knowledge of tides, fish behaviour, construction techniques and local systems of ownership.

Also in this week’s highlights: prehistoric layers beneath Korat’s historic city wall in Thailand, and Nguyễn-era military posts at Hải Vân Pass in Vietnam.

Fish traps, tidal flats, old walls and maritime memory — read the full issue here: https://bit.ly/4wkInNI

04/08/2026

What do tiger foot bones from Ice Age Palawan and blood-based binders in ancient rock art have in common? Both are reshaping how we understand the relationships between people, animals, materials and meaning in the past.

This week’s Southeast Asian Archaeology newsletter looks at new research from Palawan and the Huashan rock-art landscape, alongside UNESCO developments, temple restoration at Angkor, heritage digitisation in Vietnam and more.

Read Blood, Big Cats and Buffer Zones: https://bit.ly/4hdi4oI

27/07/2026

The latest Southeast Asian Archaeology newsletter is out, and this one is a bumper issue catching up on two weeks of news.

The main stories this week are Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan’s inscription as Thailand’s newest World Heritage Site, the reopening of Fort Cornwallis and the Penang State Museum, and continuing work at Don Yai Thong in Phetchaburi, where gold ornaments and fragile burials are being carefully prepared for conservation and further study.

There is also much more from around the region, including Muna Island rock art, Angkor conservation, Butuan boat archaeology, Cham exhibitions, Bagan excavations, and the use of archaeology in South China Sea claims.

Read the full issue here:

The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsletter for 11 - 26 July 2026

15/07/2026

Archaeologists are preparing one of the most delicate stages of the excavation at the Don Yai Thong archaeological site in Phetchaburi.

A soil block weighing more than one tonne will be lifted intact to protect the skulls of four human skeletons dating back 1,500–2,000 years. The operation follows the discovery of ancient bronze drums and two gold rings, including one engraved with an ancient Brahmi inscription believed to be nearly 2,000 years old.

The careful conservation effort aims to preserve the fragile remains for further scientific study.

13/07/2026

This week’s Southeast Asian Archaeology newsletter is out!

The main story is from Prambanan, where a new Indonesia–India conservation project will focus on the temple complex’s ruined perwara shrines. Prambanan is best known for its towering 9th-century Hindu temples, but the surrounding smaller shrines are also part of the story, and their restoration will be worth watching over the next few years.

Also featured this week: a Late Prehistoric burial site at Mun Bon Dam in northeast Thailand, where falling water levels revealed human remains, tools, beads, spindle whorls, and a notably complete Phimai Black pottery vessel.

Read the issue here:

The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsletter for 6 - 10 July 2026