Although archaeological research continues to be undertaken, there is a paucity of scholarly literature on the rise of complex societies and state formation in Southeast Asia. Much of our understanding regarding this process has come as the result of excavations in modern Thailand since the 1970s, but Vietnamese researchers have been working to fill in the picture to the east and now work is beginning in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar that in the coming years should give us a better understanding of the rise of complex societies in Southeast Asia prior to the introduction/adoption of Indian cultural traits in the region. Much of the theoretical debate on the nature of the sociopolitical structure of Bronze (c. 1500–500 bce) and Iron Age (c. 500 bce–500 ce) societies in the region has been based on data generated through excavations at settlement and cemetery sites in Thailand. We lose our ability to assess social structure through the comparative analysis of mortuary remains in Southeast Asia after the influence of India is felt, as there is a dramatic shift in the method of disposal of the dead. After the Iron Age, in the Protohistoric and Historic periods most cultures in Southeast Asia switch from inhumation burial to another form of disposal, presumably cremation, as is the custom in Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

This chapter provides an outline of our understanding of complex society in Southeast Asia from the Bronze Age up to the end of the Iron Age. In parts of Southeast Asia, as early as the 1st or 2nd century ce, political complexity seems to increase dramatically. This is especially true of the Mekong Delta region, where the polity of Funan arose. Much of our understanding of this early polity comes from Chinese historical documents and has, of late, been supplemented by archaeological research.