This chapter explores the archaeological record of cultural interactions in Southeast Asia (SEA), fromthe Neolithic past up through the period of historically reported kingdoms, from approximately 2000 BC through AD 200. Cultural interactions have been evidenced in different forms, such as humanmigrations in a large scale, traveling craftsmen and merchants in smaller scales, and overlapping patterns of exchange of knowledge, raw materials, finished products, new ideas, and people throughout SEA. Rivers and seas provided natural conduits for such networks across SEA, while overland routes also were developed. Communities were inter-connected across SEA and with other civilizations (e.g., China, India, Arabia, and Rome) by river, sea, and land. Through examining these networks, we can learn about the long-term and inter-linked developments of SEA cultures that we see today.

     Archaeology has a long history of examining cross-community interactions. Precious stone ornaments, distinctively decorated pottery, glass beads, casting molds for metal-production, and other tangible artifacts constitute the hard evidence of materials that were transported from one place to another in dated contexts. With these indisputable facts in hand, archaeologists can reconstruct maps of ancient networks of communications and trade contacts during specific time periods. We further can consider how the material evidence relates with larger themes of economic production, social meaning of trade and exchange, and opportunities for political and ideological developments.

      Archaeology has a long history of examining cross-community interactions. Precious stone ornaments, distinctively decorated pottery, glass beads, casting molds for metal-production, and other tangible artifacts constitute the hard evidence of materials that were transported from one place to another in dated contexts. With these indisputable facts in hand, archaeologists can reconstruct maps of ancient networks of communications and trade contacts during specific time periods. We further can consider how the material evidence relates with larger themes of economic production, social meaning of trade and exchange, and opportunities for political and ideological developments.

      Inter-community trading and other networking activities have greatly shaped the cultures, histories and languages of SEA over long time scales, through both “bottom-up” and “top-down” processes. The bottom-up developments entailed regular routines among local families who traded foods, exchanged finished craft goods and perhaps formed alliances at various scales within their communities and throughout whatever networks were available. The top-down developments involved control by elite groups over the general populations, for example when states and empires controlled the flows of economic production and distributions over extensive territories. Both types of process must be recognized as important and as operating simultaneously

     Various types of trading networks are documented in SEA in historically known contexts after AD
200, but this chapter examines the surviving traces of older archaeological evidence. At least as early
as 2000 BC, archaeological materials prove that contacts existed among different communities in SEA, sometimes over impressively long distances. This chapter summarizes the archaeological studies that illustrate the roles of inter-community exchange networks in the cultural history of SEA.