Lettre de Londres
Ruth PRIOR

Ruth Prior a soutenu un Ph. D à Londres en décembre 1997 sur les céramiques dégagées lors des fouilles récentes de Trà Kiêu, Ph. D qu'elle avait préparé sous la direction du Dr Ian C. Clover. Elle a eu la courtoisie de nous en envoyer un résumé dont voici de larges extraits :

This thesis focuses on the study of ceramic material, primarily pottery, from the site ofTrà Kiêu in the Thu Bon river valley, central Viet Nam. The pottery, from four excavation seasons between 1990 and 1997, has been recorded and sampIed in Vietnam for fabric analysis.
[...] According to radiocarbon dates, the pottery studied in this work dates between approximately the 1st century BC and the 5th century AD. Thus, prior to the main development of the Cham state. This gives the assemblage especial importance, lying as it does between the disappearance of the late Iron Age Sa Huynh culture and the emergence of the Cham. The thesis explores the social and economic impulses behind this transition and how these are reflected in the ceramic assemblage.

The pottery was studied in extensive detail, making it an important data set for a collection of pottery little known and even less published either in vietnamese or in any european language. The analysis
concentra tes first on the chronological and typological ordering of the vessel forms and decoration. Later the fabrics are characterised using thin section analysis, placing particular emphasis on detailing the fine grained clay matrix, rather than the inclusions, in an attempt to isolate the workings of individual production centres.

With the vessels and their fabrics described in detailed it was then possible to apply the information to the historical context of the region and attempt to understand the social setting of Trà Kiêu within the Thu Bon valley, its relationship to the rising Lin-yiJChampa kingdom and the role played by trade in its development.