Currents Of Currency: Tracing Early 1st Millennium Southeast Asian Trade Through “Die Studies” Of Rising Sun/Srivatsa Coinage
Key information
- Date
- Time
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12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
- Venue
- Online
About this event
The study of ancient Southeast Asian coinage provides unique insights into the region's early economic and cultural exchanges, yet it has historically been fragmented. Much of the existing research has relied on studies of private European collections, scattered museum holdings, and localized archaeological reports, leaving gaps in our understanding of how coinage functioned within the transregional trade networks of the 1st millennium CE.
This talk will cover the results of a study led by researchers from the National University of Singapore, recently published in Antiquity, on over 1000 silver coins from museums in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and the UK bearing distinctive Rising Sun and Srivatsa motifs. First minted by Pyu States in north-central Myanmar in the 4th century, these coins have been found across mainland and maritime Southeast Asia, from Vietnam to the Ganges Delta, and highlights die links between coins which reveal patterns of standardisation, transregional trade networks, and cultural interaction. The talk also highlights the potential of die analysis to combat illicit antiquities trafficking, using coin links to evaluate provenance, online databases, and questionable auction records.
The Art and Archaeology of Pre-Modern Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia Lecture Series
Jointly organized by CSEAS and the SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme, this lecture series invites leading experts to share their latest insights and research on Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia.
About the speaker
Andrew Harris received his PhD in Anthropology (Archaeology) from the University of Toronto in 2021, and is a proud alumnus of SOAS’s History of Art and Archaeology MA programme (Class of 2012). He currently serves as a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, as well as a Research Associate at the University of Toronto’s Archaeology Centre. Dr. Harris concurrently directs two projects in Southeast Asian archaeology: the first, investigating early first millennium CE Southeast Asian coinage through die studies and digital numismatics; the second, a fieldwork project at Angkor, Cambodia in collaboration with APSARA National Authority investigating the archaeology of Theravada Buddhist monasteries within Angkor Thom, focusing on monastic construction, settlement, and the urban history of Angkor Thom. Dr. Harris’s work has been published in Antiquity, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, World Archaeology, Asian Archaeology, and Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, with an upcoming chapter in Brill's Handbook on Memory: Southeast Asia.
Registration
This event free, open to the public, and held online only. If you would like to attend, please register using the link above.
Funding for this lecture series has been kindly provided by the Alphawood Foundation.
- Organiser: SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies and the SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme
- Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk
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