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The Iron Age in Central Thailand

The emergence of iron metallurgy in Mainland Southeast Asia (~fifth century BC) marks a major breakthrough rather cohesive, although strongly regionalized cultural traditions rooted in the southward, long- haul agricultural dispersal originating from south-central China. With the establishment of the centralized states of the Qin (221–206 BC) and Western Han (206 BC–AD 23) dynasties, the northern belt of Mainland Southeast Asia (Lingnan region, Yunnan lacustrine plains, and Song Hong River valley) attracted the expansionist policies of the Chinese empire. The southern regions of Southeast Asia, including central Thailand, followed a different path leading to interactive contacts with the Indian subcontinent and to increased regional trade networks. Iron tools, surplus management, population expansion, and a progressive localization of exotics cultural traits drove the elites of central Thailand toward a step-by-step growth in cultural complexity with the emergence of medium-complex social systems/chiefdom analogues.