Red-painted pottery
Spirals thousands of years old.
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One of South-East Asia's most important archaeological sites and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, in a rural village east of Udon Thani. It was found by chance in 1966 when an American student tripped over pottery shards on the village road, and excavations revealed burials and a settlement more than three and a half thousand years old, with early evidence of rice farming and bronze-making in the region. The village's national museum shows its best-known finds: clay jars with distinctive red spiral designs that have become Ban Chiang's emblem, bronze tools and bangles, and dioramas of its first people's lives. A few steps away is the Wat Pho Si Nai pit, where skeletons and jars are left in place as they were found, under a protective roof. A Fine Arts entry fee covers the museum; it usually opens from half past eight until half past four and is mostly closed on Mondays. Village workshops make copies of the painted pottery for sale. Some exhibits are real skeletons, so take care if you have small children. Udon Thani is an hour by air from Bangkok and the village about an hour by car from there, so allow half a day.
Spirals thousands of years old.
Burials left as found.
Early tools and bangles.
Ban Chiang village, about 50 km east of Udon Thani city
By chance in 1966, when an American student tripped over pottery shards on the village road, prompting excavations.