Toward an Anthropological and Archaeometallurgical Understanding of Ferrous Technological Transmissions Between South and Southeast Asia (Late 1st Millennium BCE – Mid-1st Millennium CE)

It has long been surmised that Southeast Asian ferrous technologies are likely derived from South Asian progenitors, however, this assertion remains largely under-evaluated in either region by archaeological and archaeometallurgical analyses. While the development of iron and steel metallurgy and other complex technologies are often associated with their origins, their economic, political and social consequences, the social relations of production, and the materiality of technology are often less discussed. Understanding the social and economic conditions of ferrous metallurgy’s emergence and characterising the confluences of materials, technologies (know-how involved, qualities), stage, scale, as well as the producer's and consumers’ social network and strategies, are all contextual elements. In order to investigate how and why (and indeed if) South Asian technologies of ferrous metallurgy impacted the development of ironworking in Southeast Asia, we first need to address the social and technological contexts of production in each region. In this paper, we offer a first step in this direction, one that examines and compares the social and technological contexts for the emergence and practice of metallurgy in South Asia and Southeast Asia on anthropological and archaeometric grounds to help discuss the potential links between the two regions. This critical state of the art will serve as a foundation for further reflection on exchanges and the social and cultural conditions for complex technological exchange