A STUDY ON LATE PREHISTORIC GLASS FROM CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST THAILAND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

Abstract

This research aims to study the typology of ancient glass and to study the similarities and the differences between various archaeological sites. Some glass was sampled for study using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for the purpose of analyzing the chemical composition in glass beads to compare with archaeological sites in Thailand and other countries.

The results of the study were: 1) Prehistoric glass in the central and northeastern regions were glass beads. 2) The annular, cylinder disk, and oblate beads were the most popular. 3) Truncated bicone beads, and long tube beads were only found at Ban Chiang archaeological site. 4) The comparison of the chemical analyses show that central and northeastern Thailand archaeological sites shared similarities with archaeological sites in both India and Vietnam.