Beyond the Indianised State: Elizabeth H. Moore, Landscape Archaeology, and Alternative Trajectories of Early Complexity in the Upland Regions of Southeast Asia

Udomluck Hoontrakul

This article reflects on the scholarly contributions of Elizabeth H. Moore to the study of Southeast Asian archaeology by situating her work within broader debates on early sociopolitical formations in the region. For much of the twentieth century, archaeological interpretations of early states in Southeast Asia were strongly influenced by the “Indianisation” paradigm, which privileged large lowland polities characterised by Indic religious architecture, inscriptions, and monumental urban centres. Moore’s research, particularly on the Pyu cities of Myanmar and moated settlements across mainland Southeast Asia, helped shift this perspective by emphasising landscape archaeology, regional interaction, and the diversity of early urban trajectories. Her approach highlighted how settlement planning, water management, and spatial organisation could reveal complex sociopolitical structures even in the absence of classical markers of Indianised states. This conceptual shift also opens analytical space for interpreting archaeological sites that fall outside the conventional lowland‑state model. Recent research on upland ring‑ditch settlements in mainland Southeast Asia suggests the presence of organised communities and possible forms of highland sociopolitical organisation that have long been overlooked in traditional state‑centred narratives. By moving beyond diffusionist explanations and focusing on regional landscapes and local agency, Moore’s work provides an important framework for understanding multiple pathways to social complexity in Southeast Asia, both in lowland urban centres and in upland settlement systems.