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Photo: Lao boats on the Mekong. February 2001. |
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MMAP Co-Directors
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Joyce C. White
University of Pennsylvania
 Dr. White is Principal Investigator for MMAP. She is a Senior Research Scientist at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and their director of the Ban Chiang Project. She is also an author and series editor for monographs presenting the results of the joint Thai/Penn excavations at Ban Chiang in the 1970s. With the MMAP project, Dr. White is pursuing larger middle Mekong regional questions raised by the original Ban Chiang excavations in Thailand and her work on the Thailand Palaeoenvironment Project.
learn more about Joyce |
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Bounheuang
Bouasisengpaseuth
Lao Ministry of Information and Culture
 Bounheuang is Deputy Director at the Lao National Museum. He has a background in fine arts and Russian history. Since 1992 he has been an archaeologist, with primary interests in prehistoric and historic ceramics of Laos. Excavations include Wat Phu in Champhasak, and Tham Hua Phu, in Luang Prabang province. He also was coordinator for a joint Lao/Japanese project conducting inventory and restoration of Buddhas in Luang Prabang. Mr. Bouasisengpaseuth first worked with Joyce White on the 2001 rapid assessment survey in Luang Prabang province. |
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| Meet the MMAP Team |
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 Katherine Arrell
University of Leeds, UK
visit her homepage
Dr. Arrell is a Lecturer in GIS in the School of Geography. Her primary interest is in the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in geomorphology, looking at improving understanding of the form of the Earth's surface and the processes by which it has been shaped. This project was of particular interest to her as she has had an interest in archaeology since university.
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 Vanpheng Keopannha
Luang Prabang National Museum
Vanpheng is Deputy Director at the Museum, a position that includes responsibility for exhibitions and collections management. She began her work at the museum in 1997 in collections management, after completing an archaeology degree at Wuhan University, China. Vanpheng had additional training in collections management and archaeological fieldwork in Japan (2001), and in collections management and textile conservation in the United States (2003). She was interested in the MMAP project because it was a way to use her archaeology training in fieldwork that can help to preserve Lao cultural heritage.
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 Kanda Keosopha
Division of Heritage Management
Department of Museums and Archaeology, Laos
Kanda brought special expertise to the MMAP project based on his 8 years of experience as a Buddhist monk and previous archaeological experience while employed at the Lao National Museum. He was co-director for excavation at the iron age site Lao Pako, and for the survey and excavation at temple sites Viengkham and Say Fong, Vientiane Province. Kanda has special interest in traditional Lao culture. |
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 Chureekamol Onsuwan Eyre (Soi)
University of Pennsylvania
Soi is a PhD student (ABD) from Thailand, specializing in Southeast Asian archaeology. She joined the Ban Chiang project in May 1998 as a graduate research assistant. For her dissertation fieldwork beginning in 2001, Soi conducted an intensive archaeological survey for early metal age sites in Nakhon Sawan province in central Thailand. She expects to receive her PhD in 2006. |
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 Benjamin Marwick
Australian National University
Ben is a PhD scholar at the Archaeology and Natural History
Department of the Australian National University. His PhD project is an
analysis of stone artifacts from two sites excavated by Rasmi Shoocongdej
and her Highland Archaeology Project in Mae Hong Son, northwest Thailand.
Ben has a professional and academic background in Australian aboriginal
archaeology. His research interests include stone artifacts in Southeast
Asia and Australia, archaeological sediments, and language evolution.
Link: Visit Benjamin's page on the Australian National University's Research
School of Pacific and Asian Studies website. |
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 Olivia Given
University of Pennsylvania
Olivia is a PhD student in the Anthropology department. Her research interests include the prehistoric archaeology of mainland Southeast Asia, landscape and settlement organization, computer applications in archaeology, GIS, cultural heritage management, and using archaeology and IT to promote economic development. Olivia also has a professional background in database programming, IT support, and international development.
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 Korakot Boonlop
Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC), Bangkok, Thailand
Korakot is an archaeology/anthropology researcher at SAC and has additional archaeology experience in the Fine Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture, Thailand. Korakot's research interests are in prehistoric archaeology and physical-biological anthropology, focusing on several Ban Chiang cultural tradition sites in northeast Thailand. Fieldwork has included sites at Ban Khok Khon, Ban Pone and Ban Dung. Korakot's B.A. and M.A. are from the Department of Archaeology at Silpakorn University, Bangkok.
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 Shawn Hyla
University of Pennsylvania Museum
Shawn is Senior Information Technology Specialist at the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. In addition to providing IT support for the Museum, Shawn is pursuing an undergraduate degree in the Department of Anthropology at the University. His special interests include physical anthropology and using IT in various archaeological projects.
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 Kone Vi Lay
Fine Arts Department
Department of Information and Culture, Laos
Kone Vi Lay was born in Luang Prabang, trained for three years in the military in Vietnam, and is fluent in Vietnamese. He has been in his current job in archives and document management in the Fine Arts Department for three years. Because he has seen artifacts for many years in the Luang Prabang market and in the surrounding countryside, he has become very interested in pursuing archaeology as a way to preserve the prehistoric record of culture in Laos. MMAP was his first experience with an archaeological field survey.
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 Boungnalit Savong
Department of Information and Culture
Boungnalit is Deputy Director at the Fine Arts School in Luang Prabang Province. He is also a sculptor who works in rosewood and teaches sculpture. Boungnalit was born in Luang Prabang and has special interest in the minority cultures of Laos. MMAP was his first field experience on an archaeological survey.
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 Barbara and Bill Henderson
Volunteers, University of Pennsylvania Museum
Barbara and Bill are a husband-and-wife team that has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, as well as Central and South America. Bill is a long-time volunteer at the Museum on the Ban Chiang project. He presented a paper at the 2003 IPPA (Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association) conference on his work developing a searchable database and typology of pottery rim forms from several Thai sites.
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 Elizabeth Van Horn (Beth)
Volunteer, University of Pennsylvania Museum
Beth has volunteered with the Ban Chiang Project at the University of Pennsylvania Museum for a year. She retired from Verizon Communications in 2003, where she was a product development manager in the Marketing department.
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