Trip to Sukhotahi, Sri Satcharelai kiln sites with Ray Hearn went very well. Ray and his friend were on their way to Udon Thani to visit the Ban Chien site and took me with them as far as Sukhotai. On the way we stoped in Sri Satchanlae at the old kiln site museum. This turned out to be the best part of thewhole trip. First we went to one of the mounds of which I think there are around 200 in the 5 kilometers of riverside that used to support the old industry.

(An interesting factor about the kiln sites is that they are all built up stream of a large set of rapids which points to an early market to the North even though we know that they eventually turned to export to the South and to the West to the sea ports.)

At the mound there are plenty of sherds lying around along with hundreds of stacking posts and separator disks. Originally the large bowls and plates were fired one at a time on firey posts. The original kilns were made of brick but later as repairs becamenecessary to the kilns the staking posts were used as filler brick.

The museum there is composed of the enclosed excavated site of one of the kiln mounds. The site is massive, covering several hundred square meters. It is obvious from the excatation that production went on in this site for several hundred years with new kilns being built directly upon the old, improved over time. The fire boxes became more advanced and a domed architecture with the use of an arch for the door began to be implimented. The only place in Thai architecture where the arch is used is in the construction of the kilns.

The layers of kilns begin wtih simple boxed dug on to the ground capable of low fire temperatures only to the top most layer where the slags on the fire box appears to be at least an inch or two thick. It is believed by some that as bronze technology improved, raising the temperatures attainable, and as the slag developed in the fire boxes the technology was trasferred over to the kilns and used as the basis for the celedon producing ash glasses.

All that is left at the kiln sites are shards of waisters which never made it to market, and old posts and separater disks. The separator disks were placed directly inside the bowls and plates leaving scar marks in the glaze. This is suggestive of a large industry focused on quantity not quality.

It is believed that commercialism was a large part of the production culture even then and that the motifs and shapes used were largely dictated by the orders recieved. Thus, as clues to the culture of the people at that time, the motifs and shapes of the objects exported are of little value. It is largely through the material goods used by the pople in Thailand that clues can be learned about the culture.

After poking around the kiln sites there, we went on to Sukhothai where I stayed for the night. The next day, I went to the old Sukhothai town which was absolutely fantastic as far as architecture, stone sculpture and temples are concerned. The majority of the park measuring several square kilometers is filled with old temples dating even to period of pre-Thai Mon peoples and Hindu worshippers.

Outside of the main temple complex are located several kiln sites, none of whicih have been excavated and provide little information to the non-archeologist. Sri Satchaneli was definately more useful in terms of information gathered.

Sri Satchanelai and Sukhotai lie in the northern part of the plain, just below the mountains where rivers could easily deposit their precious felspathic cargo which makes sense considering the large amounts of clay required to support an export business the size of that hinted at Sri Satchanelai.