Per Sørensen
1932–2015
Appreciation by Charles Higham
With the recent death of Per Sørensen, Southeast Asian archaeology lost one of its
original pioneers. Per was born in Copenhagen in 1932 and educated at the Soroe
Academy; he then studied at the University of Copenhagen. His studies included Nordic,
European, Classical and Near Eastern archaeology, as well as ethnology; he graduated
with a Master’s degree in 1960. From 1960–1963 he was employed by the Committee for
the Thai-Danish Archaeological Initiative, and during this period he directed the
excavations at the Neolithic site of Ban Kao in Kanchanaburi Province. This was the first
area excavation of any prehistoric site in Thailand. He later returned to Thailand for
further excavations at Tham Ongbah, an Iron Age mortuary site within a large cavern,
and at Nong Chae Sao in Ratburi Province.
His first academic appointment was as lecturer in extra-European archaeology in
the University of Copenhagen from 1966–1968; this was followed by a research
fellowship at the Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies, again in Copenhagen. His
direct association with the institute lasted until 1988. During his tenure, his fieldwork in
Lampang Province, Thailand, led to the discovery of early to mid-Pleistocene sites.
In 1991 Sørensen was invited by the Lao authorities to produce the first plan for
archaeological research in Laos. This gave him the opportunity to undertake his own
fieldwork at Sane Island in Champassak Province in 1992–1993, which was combined
with further work on the palaeolithic sites in Thailand.
During his excavations in 1966 at the Ban Kao Neolithic site, Sørensen visited
Chinese institutions at Xian, Guangdong, Beijing and Zhengzhou in order to identify
parallels in material culture that might provide evidence for Neolithic Southeast Asian
origins in China. To his own satisfaction, he achieved this aim, and his subsequent
publications set out this model for critical appraisal. His volume on the Ban Kao
mortuary remains, which incorporated many ceramic vessels that he matched in Chinese
sites, was published in 1967. Its publication coincided with the excavations at the site of
Non Nok Tha in north-eastern Thailand, which were organised by Wilhelm Solheim II
and directed by Donn Bayard and Hamilton Parker. Solheim and his group were
committed to the notion that Southeast Asia had cultural and chronological precedence
over anything Chinese, to which Sørensen’s model provided a perfect antidote.
Consequently, reviews of his publication were highly critical. Parker, for example, chose
to reinterpret the Ban Kao site as Iron Age and was harsh in his criticism of Sørensen’s
competence.
Despite feeling these criticisms keenly, Sørensen’s wisdom and prescience
prevailed over time. With the emergence of further data from linguistics, human DNA,
rice, human biology and even the discovery of millet seeds, so the two-layer model,
incorporating Neolithic expansions into Southeast Asia from China and the population
mixing with indigenous hunter-gatherers, has become widely accepted. As his excavation
reports clearly reveal, he was an outstanding, meticulous and able field archaeologist. All
those concerned with this topic owe him a debt of gratitude.
Per Sørensen contributed much through his publications and stimulus in aiding
the founding of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, of which he
was president from 1983–1985. He was often invited to give guest lectures in Bangkok
and was a regular attendee at conferences, together with his wife of 33 years, Mallika
Sørensen née Angsuthornrangsi. In 2002 Per visited my excavations at Ban Non Wat, and
as we investigated the latest surface, we simultaneously spotted the first Neolithic
ceramics in this part of north-east Thailand. He was a warm friend and loyal colleague,
and he will be greatly missed among Southeast Asian archaeologists.
Figure caption
Per Sørensen at Ban Non Wat on the 26 January 2002 as he spotted the first Neolithic
ceramics in the Mun Valley.