Contextualizing a Collection of Rare Cambodian Glass Ornaments Within Contemporaneous Trade Networks

(In-Person) Poster Presentation

Though archaeological glass ornament research in Iron Age Southeast Asia is a well-established field, the current body of work excludes morphologically and numerically rare objects (Carter 2016). This research uses compositional data to contextualize a looted collection of rare glass ornaments within a likely Phum Snay, Cambodia context situated within Iron Age Southeast Asian glass trade networks and interaction spheres. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LAICP-MS) compositional analysis of six of the collection’s 12 total glass earrings, bangles, and a spiral ornament forms the basis of this research. This work found that this collection’s glass ornaments were likely circulated within a local South China Sea potash glass trade network operating in the early Iron Age as well as a long-distance high-alumina mineral soda glass exchange network with South Asia during the late Iron Age. This previously unstudied collection’s novel compositional data of understudied rare prestige glass ornaments and contextualization of those artifacts within exchange networks contributes to previously sparse understandings of Iron Age Southeast Asian glass composition, exchange networks, and interaction spheres of several rare ornament types.