On Friday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. the Department of Anthropology is hosting a lecture, by Associate Professor Thanik Lertcharnrit from the Department of Archaeology of Silpakorn University in Bangkok,Thailand, on Mortuary Traditions, Bioarchaeology, and Metallurgy: Identifying Iron Age Complexity in Central Thailand.

The Iron Age in Thailand and Southeast Asia saw several major cultural changes; one is the popular consumption of bronze artifacts and consequently the intensification of copper production. This change occurred in concert with the growth of intra- and inter- regional interactions and exchanges across Mainland Southeast Asia.

Lertcharnrit’s lecture presents recent research and discoveries in Thailand with an emphasis on the Lopburi region of central Thailand where evidence of Southeast Asia's largest scale of copper ingot production has been identified.

It will also cover the contextualization of the consumption of copper-based bronze objects during the Iron Age in this region of mainland Southeast Asia—to understand the use and role of copper and bronze objects in prehistoric Thailand.

The lecture will be in the Hibben Center Room 105 and is co-sponsored by the University of New Mexico College of Arts & Sciences and Les Field, Chair of the Department of Anthropology.