Multi-modal Mortuary Practices and Technological Lineages in the Sa Huỳnh–Champa Transition (500 BCE – 500 CE)

HA Thi Suong

The emergence of the Champa civilization in Central Vietnam has long been analyzed through a lens of cultural rupture, often framing the replacement of Sa Huỳnh jar burials by Indianized states as a sudden event. However, intensive investigations (2023–2025) in Quảng Nam province reveal a nuanced process of "Diversity within Continuity." This presentation synthesizes new data from Lạc Câu and Thổ Chùa to argue for an internal socio- political evolution. At Lạc Câu, the discovery of an elite earth burial (Pit H4) containing over 2,700 artifacts including gold, nephrite, and carnelian alongside contemporary jar burials suggests that funerary practices were diversifying prior to full Indianization. Crucially, mineralized S-twist textile fragments on iron tools at Lạc Câu provide technical evidence linking Austronesian spinning traditions directly to Champa’s later silk industries. Applying Bennet Bronson’s "Upstream-Downstream" model to GPS/GIS data from the Thu Bồn and Trường Giang basins reveals how strategic trade control facilitated early polities. Evidence from sites like Gò Cấm, where Han construction materials merge with indigenous ceramics, further illustrates proactive hybridization. By integrating micro-analytical data on craft production, burial variability, and ethnographic parallels from the Trường Sơn range, this research proposes a model of continuous adaptation. It demonstrates that the transition was not a break but a sophisticated reorganization, positioning indigenous Sa Huỳnh chiefdoms as the proactive architects of the early Champa state.