Lamphun Wooden coffin cover clue to ancient times
HISTORY / VILLAGER'S RARE FIND
Wooden coffin cover clue to ancient times
Lamphun _ Archaeologists are examining an ancient wooden coffin lid bearing a carved woman-like figure, hoping to find some link to a funeral culture thought to be uncommon in Southeast Asia.
The coffin cover is 166cm long and about 30cm wide. It is made of teak and thought to be about 1,000 years old.
It is believed to be part of an elegant funeral ceremony of a long-vanished tribe, scholars from Chiang Mai University say.
They say the carving is a stylised human figure, representing a woman.
It is not known which tribe created it and even its age is uncertain because the archaeologists cannot find other ancient funeral items discovered in Thailand to make a comparison with it.
The coffin cover is considered a rare discovery, as its like has never been found before in the region.
The wooden artefact was unearthed recently by a villager collecting bat droppings in a cave in Nan's Wiang Sa district. It was buried 10 metres below the ground's surface, which was densely covered with bat guano.
It is now on display at the Haripunchai National Museum in Lamphun's Muang district, where it is being studied by experts in prehistoric archaeology.
Museum head Pensupa Sukata-Jai-in said archaeologists would take a sample of the trace of dried fluids from a corpse found on the wood and try to get a DNA sample from it.
If successful, this would help shed light on its origin.
Some archaeologists initially thought the coffin was made by a tribe from the Oceanian-Polynesian age, or the Ka Jarai tribe in Vietnam, she said.
The coffin cover was bought from the villager by the Pridi-Daojai Sujaritkul Foundation, which later gave it to the museum.
Foundation chairwoman Doajai Paijit, a popular singer in the 1970s, said she decided to purchase it after learning that a foreigner had also showed an interest in buying it.
''We need to prevent it from falling into the hands of foreign countries,'' said Ms Daojai, who set up the foundation more than 20 years ago to run social work programmes.
Bangkok Post
CHEEWIN SATTHA
