Mercer Receives Gift of Ancient Pottery

A piece of Baan Chieng Pottery dated at 6,000 to 7,000 years old has been given by Maj. Edd D. Wheeler, USAF, to Mercer University.

According to thermo-luminescence testing, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, and based on excavations conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, and based on excavations conducted by the Thai Government, the pottery ranks as the oldest painted pottery found in Southeast Asia.

A former Maconite, Maj. Wheeler was stationed at Uldorn, Thailand, Royal Thai Air Force Base, when he obtained the interesting artifact. He said the pot, characteristic of Baan Chieng pottery, is denoted by a red on cream slip painting with swirling geometric designs. The shape is also typical- a globular pot with a flaring lip attached to a base which flares out in a find of trumpet design.

In an article from the Hong Kong Sunday Herald-Post of Aug. 20, 1972, Dr. Wilheim Solheim of the University of Hawaii said, "The dates that we have on the pottery from this site are so astounding that they make it one of the most important sites in the world right now…" The pottery, along with other finds, gives evidence of progressive agricultural civilization in a time in which archaeologists previously believed only Stone Age man, if any, existed in Southeast Asia.

The importance of the Baan Chieng site, according to the Herald-Post article, is due not only to the antiquity of its artifacts, but for the opportunity of discovering the progression of its culture over a period of several thousand years. The abundance of artifacts, plus new finds at each level, plus new finds at each level, indicates that the Baan Chieng area was inhabited continuously from approximately 5,000 B.C. to perhaps the time of Christ or later.

The pottery is intriguing in shape and design as well as age. The most beautiful are decorated with parallel lines of red, spiraling, twisting and turning over the surface of the jar, reminiscent of a gigantic fingerprint. This graceful form indicates the artistic sophistication of the ancient culture.

Maj. Wheeler said he received the pottery from a friend, a sociologist, who was working in a village near where the artifacts were found by some villagers. He then sent the pottery to his wife who was living in Macon during his stay in Thailand. Since that time, Maj. Wheeler said that the Thai government has placed a ban on any of these valuable artifacts leaving the country.