Dvaravati and Maritime Connectivity in the 7th–9th Centuries: Reconceptualising the Thanon Thao U Thong Ancient Sand Barrier as a Coastal Cultural Landscape

Sumeth Sareewong

In this study, Dvaravati in central Thailand is reconsidered not as a unified polity dominated by a single centre, but as a cultural phenomenon shaped by maritime interconnectedness between the sixth and eleventh centuries. In dialogue with the legacy of Elizabeth Moore and her landscape‑oriented approaches to early Southeast Asia, this paper fosters a cognitive understanding of Dvaravati communities and their transoceanic engagement through the lens of a coastal cultural landscape. The study’s spatial focus integrates archaeological sites along the Thanon Thao U Thong ancient sand barrier (TTUT), a former coastal landform linking Khu Bua with sites further south toward Tungsetthi in Phetchaburi and conceptualises the region as a coastal cultural landscape. Rather than viewing these sites as peripheral to major centres such as U Thong or Nakhon Pathom, I argue that the TTUT region functioned as an integrated zone where religious practice, settlement organisation, craft production, and exchange intersected. By applying the coastal cultural landscape framework proposed by Christer Westerdahl and further adopted by Himanshu Prabha Ray, the study demonstrates how the TTUT was shaped simultaneously by local communities, socio‑economic realms, and participation in wider networks, while remaining deeply connected to inland resources and overland routes. The interconnected complexes along this sand barrier reveal multi‑layered cultural components that spotlight the region’s role within the broader Dvaravati sphere. By repositioning the TTUT as integral rather than marginal, the study contributes a maritime dimension to Dvaravati scholarship and complements understandings of early Southeast Asian socio‑religious landscapes within the Indian Ocean World.