November 2010 - National Museum Volunteers

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CROSSING BORDERS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGY REPORT OF THE 13 TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS (EURASEAA 13) 27 th September – 1 st October 2010, Freie Universität Berlin by John J. Toomey A world away from the noisy celebrations for the Berlin Marathon and the 20th Anniversary of German Reunification, in the sleepy, leafy, wooded Dahlem district of stately villas with steep pitched roofs and classic or baroque fronts, spreads the vast campus of Berlin’s Freie Universität. Its many faculties and institutes sprawling between the U- and S-bahns which serve the southwest, this huge estate of higher learning is home to the Max Planck Institute, the Japan-German Center, The Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology, The German Archaeological Institute, the world-famed Dahlem State Ethnographic Museum and Dahlem State Museums of Asian, African, and Middle and North American Indian Arts, and various other museums and centers of learning. Young students and not-so young faculty (many looking the role of Albert Einstein) peddled by on bicycle as I took my daily 20-minute early morning walks through the cold rain, over bumpy cobblestone paths under the lofty, majestic trees which were trying to turn autumnal golds and reds, past gardens of chrysanthemums and late rose trellises, both grand and homey, neat or rambling, heading for the Henry Ford Lecture Halls to take part in the week-long sessions of the 13th International Conference of the European Association of SEA Archaeologists, where I would learn from the best in the field and also present my research on the possible relationship between Thai Lue textiles and the Dvaravati Parrot Sema stone in the Ubon Ratchathani National Museum, with possible roots in Sassanian (ancient Iranian) and/or Western Han dynasty motifs, of birds confronted at a tree of life or vase, and about the phallicprotective role of Dvaravati sema stones and megaliths in general. Parrot Sema Stone from Wat Parelai, Ubon Ratchathani 16 . Newsletter National Museum Volunteers . November 2010 .
Hongsa confronted at vase sipping elixir of life, Thai Lue textile The theme of this year’s bi-annual conference was “Crossing Borders in Southeast Asian Archaeology”, and I felt that my journey of “crossing borders” truly began when I crossed into the gigantic lobby and saw the sea of faces of famous SEA archaeologists from around the globe at the registration morning. After shaking off our umbrellas and shaking hands of friends and acquaintances, we all spotted and mixed with the crème de la crème of the world of SEA archaeology. Manning the registration table were the Chair of the conference, tall and beaming German Prof. Dr. Dominik Bonatz and his charming, petite and radiantly ever-cheerful wife Dr. Mai Loin Tjoa-Bonatz, both of whom conducted ground-breaking work on the 3400-year-old pottery traditions of the highlands of Jambi, Sumatra. One’s eyes were also naturally drawn to England’s John Guy of the NY Metropolitan Museum (formerly from London’s V&A) who has written on almost everything in the fields of art and archaeology, and to New Zealand’s Charles F.W. Higham (aka “Mr. Southeast Asian Archaeology”), who in a few days would deliver a 20-minute presentation that would completely realign the dating of Ban Chiang. I spotted Louis Allison Cort, being familiar with her vast work on Japanese tea ceramics, chatting with Leedom Lefferts whose work on SEA textiles is well known to many NMV members, both curators at the Sackler-Freer of the Smithsonian Institute, who would jointly give a talk on the women potters of SouthYunnan and Northern Thailand and their paddle and anvil methods. Faces more familiar to the NMV were Thammasat University’s Nicolas Revire who would trace the spread of the iconography of the buddhas seated in “European fashion” and SOAS’s Stephen Murphy and Thailand’s Pimchanok Pongkasetkan who together would discuss the transition from late prehistoric to Buddhist funerary practices at Dong Mae Nang Muang as they had recently at one of he NMV’s monthly lectures, and, of course, Glasgow’s Louis Allison Cort (R) joins other archaeologists in the guided tour of the Egyptian Correction at the Neues Museum . November 2010 . Newsletter National Museum Volunteers . 17
Page 1 and 2: NEWS Bangkok No. 11 November 2010 N
Page 3 and 4: IN THIS ISSUE CONTENTS 2 Calendar &
Page 5 and 6: MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Mem
Page 7 and 8: FROM THE LIBRARY Call for volunteer
Page 9 and 10: AT HOME At Home with Ajahn Bill Tha
Page 11 and 12: INTRODUCTORY LECTURE SERIES 65 th I
Page 13 and 14: RECENT HAPPENINGS EXCURSION TO PAK
Page 15 and 16: And he will be doing it in a very s
Page 17: Höhle geschafft und wir wurden mit
Page 21 and 22: ence, England’s Ian Glover, a fac
Page 23 and 24: lady in the world, insured for 5.2
Page 25 and 26: The Dahlem used to be called the Mu
Page 27 and 28: This statue of King Mongkut is now
Page 29 and 30: longest reign of a Chakri monarch.
Page 31 and 32: The bronze statue of King Rama I wa
Page 33 and 34: Monument of King Taksin, (1953) by
Page 35 and 36: EXCURSION NMV WEEKEND EXCURSION Chi
Page 37 and 38: EXCURSIONS POLICY Participating in
Page 39 and 40: NMV STEERING COMMITTEE Patron: MR C

November 2010 - National Museum Volunteers

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