| Abstract: |
The increase in archaeological research in recent years in southern Vietnam permits the inclusion of relevant sites from that region into the wider regional understanding of important cultural phenomena in mainland Southeast Asia. This paper considers the ceramic technology in relation to the appearance of rice cultivation, animal husbandry, ground and polished stone tools and related cultural signatures that are commonly associated with the "Neolithic" period. Comprehensive analyses have been conducted on the ceramics of An Son in southern Vietnam, and are ongoing. A study of ceramic form, decoration and fabric has been applied to comparative analyses of available material from other sites within the southern Vietnam region to uncover local and regional ceramic traditions. Beyond Long An province, the Neolithic ceramics of southern Vietnam were correlated with similar contemporaneous developments in other regions of Southeast Asia. While An Son shares ceramic affinities with a wider Neolithic expression in mainland Southeast Asia, there is also a distinct regional ceramic tradition in southern Vietnam, as well as unique local ceramics at An Son itself. This situation implies local innovation in addition to the expansion of cultivating groups during the Neolithic of Southeast Asia.
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