[blam]

"I first heard the term 'cord marked' while reading the descriptions of pottery at the Ban Chiang dig museum."

There's something intriguing about Ban Chiang and I haven't quite figured it out yet. FReeper JimSEA brought this area to my attention. (I suspect they're early Sundaland refugees?)

[JimSEA]

Some Soutwestern United States natives from the late "basketmakers" period per the U of Ariz's Dr. Howrey (sp?) made their first pottery by layering clay inside baskets and then firing them. buring away to baskey and leaving the signature cord pattern and, frankly, looking much like some of the Ban Chiang cord pottery.

If memory serves me correctly, and it frequently doesn't, the age of the USA pottery would be about 4000 years or more recent than the Thailand site and far more recent than the Japanese site.

While the "basketmakers" were clearly the ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians (Hopi, etc.) the question would be what intermarriage had taken place and what culture was passed down. In the same area of the USA, Clovis sites are numerous -- Clovis, NM. One site from the San Pedro Valley has the most beautiful spear points and knives I have ever seen. Some of which are embedded in Mammoth bones.