Non Pa Wai
Non Pa Wai Copper Production Site · Lopburi Non Pa Wai
Bronze Age 1500–700 BCE → Iron Age transition·Khao Wong Prachan Copper culture (Central Thai Bronze, Ban Chiang network)·🇹🇭 Lopburi Province, Chiang Kan District, Non Pa Wai hill slope (Khao Wong Prachan Valley, central Thailand copper belt, 15 km east of Lopburi city), Thailand
About
About Non Pa Wai
Central Thailand copper production village (c.1500–700 BCE, Bronze Age Khao Wong Prachan valley) 15 km east of Lopburi — 5 ha mound and smelting scatter excavated 1986–2020 by Vincent Pigott, Thomas Pryce and Thanik Lertcharnrit (U Penn–Silpakorn). Non Pa Wai yielded continuous copper production 1500 BCE to 700 BCE: smelting furnace fragments, lost-wax crucibles, copper ingots 2 kg, and slag 3m thick, integrating with Vilabouly (Laos) as Thailand's Khao Wong Prachan copper source for Ban Chiang and Central Plain bronze, predecessor to Nil Kham Haeng and Khao Sam Kaeo iron transition. Forms 'Khao Wong Prachan' arc with Nil Kham Haeng and Non Hin.
Why it mattersMain Thai Bronze Age copper source (1500 BCE) — Non Pa Wai + Vilabouly duo disproves Chinese copper import to Ban Chiang; 800-year continuous record.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Was ore from Vilabouly or Khao Wong local? — isotopic 70% Vilabouly per Pryce
Theories
- 01Central Thai Copper Belt as SEA Bronze Age industrial heart (Pigott model)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1500 BCE early smelting hamlet; florescence 1100–700
- Period
- Bronze Age 1500–700 BCE → Iron Age transition
- Culture
- Khao Wong Prachan Copper culture (Central Thai Bronze, Ban Chiang network)
- Builders
- Khao Wong bronze smiths (Lopburi valley coppersmiths)
- Purpose
- Primary Thai copper foundry supplying Ban Chiang–Non Nok Tha bronze to Isan and Central Plain
- Abandoned
- c.700 BCE (iron smelting replaces copper at nearby Nil)
- Rediscovered
- 1986 Pigott survey; 1990s Thai Penn–Silpakorn excavations
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.1500–1100 BCE
Earliest smelting with crucible and furnace fragments on Khao foothills
c.1100–700 BCE
Peak: 2 kg ingots, 3 m slag heap, bivalve axe casting for Isan
1986–2020
Pigott–Pryce long-term Khao Wong Prachan copper source study
On the ground
Structures & features
15.1200° N · 101.1200° E · 70 m · 2 mapped features
Slag Heap and Furnace Area
industrial3 m slag heap with furnace and tuyere at hill edge (1100 BCE)
15.1205° N · 101.1205° ECrucible Scatter and House Floors
settlementCrucible scatter and house floors on hillock summit with 2 kg ingot pit
15.1195° N · 101.1195° E
Gallery