Paper Status Tracking
Contact us
[email protected]
Click here to send a message to me 3275638434
Paper Publishing WeChat

Article
Affiliation(s)

Underwater Archaeology Division, Thailand

ABSTRACT

In the first millennium CE, the area of the Thai-Malay Peninsula is considered a hub that accommodated maritime trade connecting East Asia, India, and the Mediterranean. Imported artefacts from archaeological sites (proto-historical port sites) and historical archives reveal overseas trade via maritime cross-cultural contacts. Besides, ancient shipwrecks offer concrete proof of the region’s technological expertise. This article explores the socio-cultural and technological advancements of the proto-historical period by comparing two distinct shipwrecks discovered in Thailand. One vessel demonstrates the adaptation of imported Mediterranean-style shipbuilding techniques using native Southeast Asian materials, while the other exemplifies the Southeast Asian’s local shipbuilding traditions. By evaluating these differing approaches, this research challenges strict, linear evolutionary timelines of maritime technology. Ultimately, the study posits that early maritime engineering in the Thai-Malay Peninsula was not the result of passive cultural diffusion, but rather of a sophisticated blend of localised innovation and imported knowledge adapted for specific environmental and practical needs.

KEYWORDS

Southeast Asian shipbuilding, lashed lugs, mortise & tenon, Thai-Malay peninsula, Maritime contact

Cite this paper

Sira Ploymukda. (2026). Transoceanic Contact of Suvaṇṇabhūmi: Shipbuilding Innovation and Cross-Cultural Exchange in the Proto-Historical Thai-Malay Peninsula. History Research, August 2026, Vol. 8, No. 8, 429-443.

References

Adams, J. (2013). A maritime archaeology of ships: Innovation and social change in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Alcina, F. I., Martín-Merás, M. L., & Higueras, M. D. (1975). Historia de las islas e indios visayas del Padre Alcina, 1668. Instituto Histórico de Marina (Colección Biblioteca de historia de América). Available at: https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=JJxph
cA5tsIC

Bellina-Pryce, B., & Silapanth, P. (2006). Weaving cultural identities on trans-Asiatic networks: Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula—An early socio-political landscape. Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, 93(1), 257-293. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.2006.6039

Bellwood, P. et al. (2007). Ancient boats, boat timbers, and locked mortise-and-tenon joints from bronze/iron-age Northern Vietnam. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 36(1), 2-20. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2006.00128.x

Borell, B., Bellina, B., & Chaisuwan, B. (2014). Contacts between the Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula and the Mediterranean World. In N. Revire and S.A. Murphy (Eds.), Before Siam was Born: New insights on the art and archaeology of pre-modern Thailand and its neighbouring regions (pp. 98-117). River Books. Available at: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02393494.

Bowonsachoti, J. (2023). Cave Dweller at Khao Ta Phlai, the Hinterland site: Their communication to people of coastal areas in the Thai-Malay Peninsula. NakornSrithammarat.

Chaisuwan, B., & Naiyawat, R. (2009). Thung Tuk: A settlement linking together the maritime silk route (1st ed.). Songkhla: Trio Creation.

Chattopadhyay, R. K. (2018). Historiography. In The Archaeology of Coastal Bengal (pp. 1-11). Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199481682.003.0001

Chulruek, S. et al. (2005). The Thai hardwoods (3rd ed.). Royal Forest Department.

Cœdès, G. (1975). The Indianized states of Southeast Asia. Canberra: Australian National University Press.

Favereau, A., & Bellina, B. (2016). Thai-Malay Peninsula and South China Sea networks (500 BC-AD 200), based on a reappraisal of “Sa Huynh-Kalanay”-related ceramics. Quaternary International, 416, 219-227. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
quaint.2015.09.100

Hill, J. E. (2009). Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd centuries CE. South Carolina: BookSurge.

Hirth, F. (1885). China and the Roman orient: Researches into their ancient and medieval relations as represented in old Chinese records. Munich: Georg Hirth.

Horridge, A. G. (1982). The lashed-lug boat of the eastern archipelagoes. London.

Indrawooth, P. (2005). Suvannabhumi: From archaeological evidences. Bangkok: Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University.

Kangked, N. (2009). The ornaments discovered at Phu Khao Thong Thong archaeological sites and vicinities in Ranong Province. Master of Arts, Silpakorn University.

Kimura, J. (2022). Archaeological evidence of shipping and shipbuilding along the Maritime Silk Road. In F. Billé, S. Mehendale, and J. W. Lankton (Eds.), The Maritime Silk Road: Global connectivities, regional nodes, localities (pp. 97-127). Amsterdam University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463722247_ch04

Lacsina, L. (2015). The Butuan boats of the Philippines: Southeast Asian edge-joined and lashed-lug watercraft. Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, 39.

Lacsina, L. (2016). Examining Pre-Colonial Southeast Asian boatbuilding: An archaeological study of the Butuan Boats and the use of edge-joined planking in local and regional construction techniques. Flinders.

Liebner, H. H. (2014). The siren of Cirebon: A tenth‑century trading vessel lost in the Java Sea (Doctoral dissertation). University of Leeds.

Mahran, H. I. M. (2013). Scenes of overseers of wooden boat construction in the tombs of the Old Kingdom. The Egyptian Knowledge Bank, 16, 36-56.

Manguin, P. Y. (2019). Sewn boats of Southeast Asia: The stitched-plank and lashed-lug tradition. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 48(2), 400-415. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1095-9270.12367

Manguin, P. Y., & Stark, M. T. (2022). Mainland Southeast Asia’s Earliest Kingdoms and the Case of “Funan”. The Oxford handbook of Early Southeast Asia (pp. 1-908). Oxford University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/978019
9355358.001.0001

McLaughlin, R. (2010). Rome and the Distant East: Trade routes to the ancient lands of Arabia, India and China. London, UNITED KINGDOM: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/soton-ebooks/detail.action?doc
ID=587887

Miksic, J. (2017). Ships, sailors and Kingdoms of Ancient Southeast Asia. In C. Buchet, P. Arnaud, and P. de Souza (Eds.), The sea in history—The ancient world (pp. 560-572). Boydell & Brewer. Available at: https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1017/9781782049081.046

Mochtar, A. (2018). The seventh-century Punjulharjo boat from Indonesia: A study of the early Southeast Asian lashed-lug boatbuilding tradition (Master thesis). Flinders University. Available at: https://flex.flinders.edu.au/file/5b8a6d45-1c8d-4a10-9647-e24526ef1714/1/ThesisMochtar2018.pdf (Accessed: November 23, 2022)

Muckelroy, K. (1974). Maritime archaeology (1st ed.). Cambridge: University of Cambridge.

Nanakorn, W. (1985). The genus Terminalia (Combretaceae) in Thailand. Thai Forest Bulletin (Botany), 15, 59-107.

Noriko, N. et al. (2014). Nishimura project: The oldest shipwreck found in Vietnam—Testimony to the maritime ceramic route. Proceedings of the Underwater Archaeology in Vietnam and Southeas Asia: Cooperation for Development.

Perez-Alvaro, E., & Forrest, C. (2018). Maritime archaeology and underwater cultural heritage in the disputed South China sea. International Journal of Cultural Property, 25(3), 375-401. Available at: https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1017/S0940739118000176

Piromrak, N. (2019). A survey report of the Khlong Thom Shipwreck, Khlong Thom Tai sub-district, Khlong Thom District, Krabi Province. Chanthaburi.

Piromrak, N. (2020). Khlong Thom Shipwreck: Evidence of early lashed-lug boat found in Thailand. Silpakorn Journal, 63(5), 31-42. Available at: www.finearts.go.th

Piromrak, N. (2023). Discussion on the traces of an early phase lashed-lug boats of Southeast Asia. Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage.

Ploymukda, S. (2020). Pak Khlong Kluay Shipwreck site: Evidence-based shipbuilding technology and marine interaction across the Andaman Coast in early history period. Silpakorn Journal, 63(5), 43-58. Available at: www.finearts.go.th

Ploymukda, S., & Piromrak, N. (2019). The excavation of Pak Khlong Khluay Shipwreck, Suksamran District, Ranong Province between 15 January to 8 February 2019. Chanthaburi.

Ptolemy., & McCrindle, J. W. (1885). Ancient India as described by Ptolemy; Being a translation of the chapters which describe India and Eastern Asia in the treatise on geography written by Klaudios Ptolemaios ... With Introduction, Commentary, Map of India according to Ptolemy, and ... Index, by J. W. McCrindle. Culcutta: Thacker & Co.

Pulak, C. (1998). The uluburun shipwreck: An overview. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 27(3), 188-224. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.1998.tb00803.x

Rahothan, W., & Vosmer, T. (2023). The early ninth-century “Ban Khlong Yuan” lashed-lug boat of Chaiya, Peninsular Thailand: comparisons, contrasts and capabilities. Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage.

Saraya, T. (1988). The formation of the stage in Tha-Chin-Mae-Khlong basin: A historical development of ancient Nakorn Prathom: The study of archaeological evidence. Muangboran, 14(1).

Saraya, T. (1989). Sri Dvaravati: History of the early Siam. Bangkok: Muangboran.

Sen, T. (2006). The travel records of Chinese pilgrims Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing. Sources for Cross-Cultural Encounters Between Ancient China and Ancient India, Education About Asia. Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:
Xuanzang_Da_Yan_Ta_statue.jpg

Solheim, W. G. (1989). A brief history of the Dongson concept. Asian Perspectives, 28(1), 23-30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4292
8186

Stark, M. T. (2006). From Funan to Angkor Collapse and Regeneration in Ancient Cambodia. In G. M. Schwartz and J. J. Nichols (Eds.), After collapse: The regeneration of complex societies. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.

Steffy, J. R. (1985). The Kyrenia Ship: An interim report on its hull construction. American Journal of Archaeology, 89(1), 71-101.

Thongkam, Y. (2009). A study of glassware from archaeological sites on southern coast of Thailand prior to 11th century A.D. (Master Thesis). Silpakorn University.

Veeraprajak, K. (1986). Inscriptions from South Thailand. SPAFA Digest, 7(1), 7-21. Available at: https://www.spafajournal.org/
index.php/spafadigest/article/view/474/466 (Accessed: May 1, 2024)

Veeraprasert, M. (1985). Prajjuban Khong Boran KadeeThai: A collection of academic articles from the past 30 years. Early South-East Asia. Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University.

Verhaegen, D. et al. (2010). What is the genetic origin of teak (Tectona grandis L.) introduced in Africa and in Indonesia?. Tree Genetics and Genomes, 6(5), 717-733. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-010-0286-x

Ward, C. (2004). Boatbuilding in ancient Egypt. The Philosophy of Shipbuilding, 12-24.

Weiqiao Archaeological Team. (2015). An ancient ship unearthed at the Beiwei Bridge site in Han Chang’an City, Xi’an. Xi’an.

Whitewright, J. (2017). Mediterranean ship technology in Antiquity. In C. Buchet, P. Arnaud, and P. de Souza (Eds.), The sea in history—The ancient world (pp. 199-213). Boydell & Brewer.

Whitmore, T. C. (1973). Tree flora of Malaya: A manual for foresters. Longman (Malayan forest records). Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T5IMAQAAMAAJ.

Young, G. K. (2003). Rome’s eastern trade: International commerce and imperial policy 31 BC-AD 305. Taylor & Francis. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AdqAAgAAQBAJ

About | Terms & Conditions | Issue | Privacy | Contact us
Copyright © 2001 - David Publishing Company All rights reserved, www.davidpublisher.com
3 Germay Dr., Unit 4 #4651, Wilmington DE 19804; Tel: 001-302-3943358 Email: [email protected]