[edit] Early Metal Phases in Southeast Asia

[edit] Early Metal Phases in Southeast Asia
It was around 2,500 BC that the Austronesian people started to populate the archipelago and introduced primitive ironworks technology that they had mastered to the region.
By around the 5th century BC, people of the Dong Son culture, who lived in what is now Vietnam, had mastered basic metal working. Their works are the earliest known metal object to be found by archeologists in Southeast Asia.