[Fedora]

Very good info you mention there--I need to read up on some of that. I do recall being surprised to learn how advanced Vietnamese culture was at a very early stage. One of my own theories is that the contact between Sumeria and the Indus Valley c. 2500-1700 BC may have influenced culture in SE Asia and China at an early stage.

[JimSEA]

Sorry for my really sad spelling and typing. I tend to agree as the date for the Indic cultural influence keeps getting pushed back. Interestingly, unlike so many meetings of quite different cultures, ther are not signs of genocide and large scale population disruptions. A lot of this probably results from Buddhist influence but the first contacts brought Hindu culture and dieties as is reflected in Khmer and Dvaravati, Champa, and Sirivijaya where Buddhism and Hindu mixed. It really is hard to sort things out, particularly when, where there were written records, they were highly perisable.

[blam]

"I do recall being surprised to learn how advanced Vietnamese culture was at a very early stage."

The oldest iron (maybe bronze, forgot which) making site in the world is located in Thailand. That suprised me.