| Abstract: |
The paper deals with the marine cowrie (Cypraea spp.) and Chinese copper coinage in the Dian Culture of East Yunnan, China at the time of Han penetration in the second century BC. Two main problems are explored: the source of supply, and the function of the cowries found in the richest burials. Many consideration point to an exchange network with Mainland Southeast Asia and one in which India played an important role. Archaeological evidence clearly establishes that cowries, reserved for wealthy burials, were probably in the control of certain families, and not used for commercial transactions, but as status markers and prestige goods accumulated as stores of value and for intersocietal exchanges between elites. It is likely that the Chinese copper coinage was not used in ordinary transactions either, but placed as symbols of wealth in tombs of individuals who had contacts with the "Chinese" world.
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