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Archaeology in Lopburi Province has been under long-term development since the 1970s and has led to the discovery of Khao Wang Prachan Valley (KWPV) as one of three currently known primary copper production (mining and smelting) sites in Southeast Asia. However, since the 1980s, archaeometallurgical research has focused mainly on the two sites of Non Pa Wai (NPW) and Nil Kham Haeng (NKH), dated from the Neolithic (ca. 1800 B.C.) to Early Iron Age (ca. 2300 B.C.), that are known to have large sequences of archaeological material linked to copper production. Although other sites with evidence of copper production are known in this restricted geographical area, their assemblages have not previously been subjected to archaeometric study. This article discusses the results of archaeometallurgical analyses of slags from Khao Sai On (KSO), Tha Kae (TK), and Phromthin Tai (PTT) with sequences dated during the Middle-Late Iron Age. Slag analysis reveals that different smelting behaviours were occurring at these sites. One heterogeneous smelting behaviour at Khao Sai On was probably linked to a smaller community practicing metallurgy amongst other activities, whilst Phromthin Tai shows more homogeneous production linked to a larger settlement. Although these three sites are located within 26 km of each other, smelters were probably exploiting different local copper deposits around KWPV. The results seem to support a community-based type of production where production behaviours are linked to local geology, technical competence, and intensity of exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its late 1970s to early 1980s discovery, the Khao Wong Prachan Valley (KWPV) of central Thailand has been assumed to have been a major supplier of copper in Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Early Historic Southeast Asia. KWPV was the first regional metal production system to be characterised by lead isotope (LI) analysis in the late 2000s, revealing a coherent signature easily distinguished from subsequent analyses of production systems at Phu Lon (northern Thailand) and the Vilabouly Complex (central Laos). Despite KWPV's scale of production, its LI signature has scarcely been detected at Bronze Age metal consumption sites in nearby northeast Thailand and not at all in Iron Age assemblages. We study copper production and copper/bronze consumption behaviours of Iron Age and Early Historic sites in KWPV's immediate vicinity: Khao Sai On, Phromthin Tai, Tha Kae, and Sab Champa. Khao Sai On and Phromthin Tai production signatures are highly consistent with those previously established, whilst the uranogenic tendency at Tha Kae explains outliers from Bronze Age Non Pa Wai and Nil Kham Haeng. Analysis of consumption assemblages reveals little to no consistency with local production signatures. This tendency was tested with LI Iron Age and Early Historic datasets for Ban Khu Muang, Ban Mai Chaimongkol, Ban Pong Manao, and Ban Pong Takhob. The pattern is clear: central Thai populations imported copper/bronze, potentially from the Vilabouly Complex or production loci with closely comparable signatures. We examine this counterintuitive behaviour inductively using Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage combined with a technological appreciation of the relatively low productivity of central Thai primary copper production. This suggests central Thailand's unattached copper producers freely exchanged copper for exotic goods (bronze, glass, semi-precious stone), with potentially poor terms of exchange, from their desire to participate in wider regional trends in conspicuous consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]