Bob Hudson's Slightly Whimsical Archaeology of Myanmar (Burma) Website.

Yes, it's just a basic website. With stuff on it. No Blog, no Twitter, no Facebook.  Not even any advertising links! Like something out of the 1990s, really. But publications get updated regularly, and I answer email enquiries.

Alternative site for downloads: http://usyd.academia.edu/BobHudson

Updated April 2013

 PUBLICATIONS for DOWNLOAD!

Recent academic publications  on the archaeology of Myanmar/Burma. They are in pdf format. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them (get it free from the web if you don't have it already). All these papers may be cited for research purposes. 

The Origins of Bagan: The archaeological landscape of Upper Burma to AD 1300

Abstract: The archaeological landscape of Upper Burma from the middle of the first millennium BC to the Bagan period in the 13th-14th century AD is a landscape of continuity. Finds of polished stone and bronze artifacts suggest the existence of early metal-using cultures in the Chindwin and Samon River Valleys, and along parts of the Ayeyarwady plain. Increasing technological and settlement complexity in the Samon Valley suggests that a distinctive culture whose agricultural and trade success can be read in the archaeological record of the Late Prehistoric period developed there. The appearance of the early urban "Pyu" system of walled central places during the early first millennium AD seems to have involved a spread of agricultural and management skills and population from the Samon. The leaders of the urban centres adopted Indic symbols and Sanskrit modes of kingship to enhance and extend their authority. The early urban system was subject over time to a range of stresses including siltation of water systems, external disruption and social changes as Buddhist notions of leadership eclipsed Brahmanical ones. The archaeological evidence indicates that a settlement was forming at Bagan during the last centuries of the first millennium AD. By the mid 11th century Bagan began to dominate Upper Burma, and the region began a transition from a system of largely autonomous city states to a centralised kingdom. Inscriptions of the 11th to 13th centuries indicate that as the Bagan Empire expanded it subsumed the agricultural lands that had been developed by the Pyu.

This is my 2004 PhD thesis. To download a full, searchable copy of the thesis (40 MB- full colour illustrations, maps), (click here to view in your browser, right-click to download the file to your computer)

Alternative download area: the Australian Digital Theses Program-  http://hdl.handle.net/2123/638

HOW BIG IS THAT POT? Archaeologists often find pieces of rim from broken pots. This handy tool gives you an instant rim diameter measurement. Download the single page pdf file, print it on A4 paper and laminate it.

  Hudson-2012-ThousandYearsBeforeBagan-Rev3.pdf    New radiocarbon dates suggest that Myanmar's main Pyu cities, Sriksetra, Beikthano and Halin, were all operational in the early centuries of the First Millennium AD. This 3 MB conference paper (Bagan, Feb 2012, revised June 2012) has graphs and colour illustrations.

   A Royal Collection of Bronze Model Boats and Soldiers from 18thCentury Burma- 2011 Are  you are interested in 18th century Myanmar history? Keen on model soldiers? This paper has both.

  Buddha Images And Reliquaries From Bagan-2011 Wonderful treasures in gold and rock crystal, photographed after they were revealed by an earthquake and before they were sealed back into a Buddhist relic chamber.

Two reports on recent excavations of pre-urban sites at Halin, with colour photos- maps- lots of skeletons! (2009 paper) (2010 paper)

   A 2008 review of the architectural repairs and renovations at Bagan over the past 20 years or so: useful reading for archaeologists, architects, heritage managers (click to view, right-click to download)

Archaeological survey of Sriksetra (Myanmar's biggest walled city), a paper (2 MB, illustrated) co-authored with hydrologist Terry Lustig- Hudson & Lustig-2008-Sriksetra, and an associated full-colour A2 format map, the  archaeological survey map of SRIKSETRA, showing newly discovered buildings and drainage systems, and illustrated with many pictures of the artworks and buildings associated with the city. This map comes as a 2 MB pdf file.

  A 2007 paper on some controversial incised rock images near Mrauk-u, in Arakan (Rakhine) state -  (3MB) Rock art and artisans in the Lemro Valley, Arakan

  An overview of the archaeology of Myanmar/Burma, with maps and pictures (19 MB): The Archaeology of Burma by Gutman & Hudson, 2004

  Pyu Stucco At Pagan (co-authored with Dr Pamela Gutman of the University of Sydney in 2005) looks at one of the earliest temples at Bagan and discusses  its links with the earlier Pyu culture of Myanmar/Burma (2 MB- full colour illustrations).

  The Merits of Rebuilding Bagan (18 KB) looks at a major controversy in the world of heritage management! Should hundreds of Buddhist buildings at Bagan, in Myanmar be rebuilt- sometimes from the ground up .... should they be repaired and conserved with as little change as possible ... or should they be left as picturesque ruins?

  A Pyu Homeland in the Samon Valley: a new theory of the origins of Myanmar's early urban system (700 KB) proposes that the First Millennium AD Pyu culture was related to an earlier indigenous society of Iron-Age agriculturalists, and was not the result of mass migration.

  A 2005 conference paper on ancient geography and recent archaeology  (1.4 MB- includes maps) at Vesali, Dhanyawadi and Mrauk-u, in Rakhine state (Arakan) on the west coast of Myanmar provides the first ever radiocarbon date for this region..

    Ancient dental decoration (450 KB, full colour) in the form of a jawbone with teeth that have been drilled and packed with gold leaf! A short, illustrated  2003 report of interest to archaeologists ... and dentists!

  A paper (1.5 MB- full colour) outlining some of what is known about early iron production in Myanmar Hudson-2006-IronInMyanmar.pdf

   Interested in pottery? Webpage  Making earthenware pottery in Myanmar/Burma- a continuing tradition.

BUT WAIT- THERE'S MORE!

We still have  all the old favourites:  "NAIVE IMAGES OF THE BUDDHA"- a photographic study of some small, unusual, individually crafted bronze Buddha images from South East Asia; WHAT KIND OF BUDDHA IMAGE IS THAT?- some examples of the major styles of Buddha image, and THEY THOUGHT IT WAS BUDDHA'S FOOT: a photographic report of the excavation in Northern Thailand of several ancient pottery kilns. These were the first kilns to be excavated in the north. If you are familiar with the kiln project at Si Satchanalai in Central Thailand, you will certainly want to know about this discovery. There is also HOW DO THEY MAKE THOSE BRONZE BUDDHA STATUES? some photographs from Mandalay of the "lost wax" process of making bronze artifacts.

There is   BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE AT BAGAN:  photographs and descriptions of Pagan, in Burma, (now called Bagan, Myanmar), and its surrounding area, including some of the medieval Buddhist capital's more than  3,200 surviving  buildings. There are  some ARCHAEOLOGICAL MYSTERIES: pictures of unidentified art or archaeological  objects sent in by visitors to these pages. And a page dedicated to BUDDHIST AMULETS: little medals, statues, relics or talismans that are a popular element of Buddhist practice in Thailand.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.  Bob Hudson is an Open Society Foundations Visiting Fellow at the University of Yangon, and an adviser to UNESCO and the Myanmar Department of Archaeology on the proposed World Heritage status of the old Pyu cities of Sriksetra, Halin and Beikthano.  He is an Associate with the  archaeology department at  The University of Sydney (Australia).  and a visiting professor at the Myanmar University of Culture's Field School of Archaeology at Pyay, the site of the ancient city of Sriksetra. Some of his research into early Myanmar was undertaken thanks to an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. His carbon dating research is supported by AINSE, the Australian Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering.  His research  involves a variety of archaeological methods including  field survey,  excavations, radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, textual analysis, the interpretation of aerial photos and satellite imagery and the construction of archaeological databases and digital maps.

 email bhudson@mail.usyd.edu.au