Dougald O’Reilly, "Empires of the Southern Ocean: Early Civilizations of Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026)

About this episode

Dougald O’Reilly discusses the political transformation of Southeast Asian societies and the development of early states in his book 'Empires of the Southern Ocean'.

From about the middle of the first millennium of the Common Era through to the fifteenth century, Southeast Asian societies underwent a political transformation that produced the first, early states that were the forerunners of the countries we know today as Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Dougald O’Reilly’s Empires of the Southern Ocean: Early Civilizations of Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026), tells the complicated story of the development of these earlier polities from ‘chiefdoms’ to more complex states. The book highlights the role of local factors in the rise of these states, as well as the influence of early Southeast Asia’s participation in long-distance trade networks in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/archaeology

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Dougald O’Reilly

Topics covered

• Southeast Asia
• early states
• political transformation
• long-distance trade
• Indian Ocean
• South China Sea

Keywords

• Southeast Asia
• early civilizations
• political transformation
• trade networks
• chiefdoms
• states
• Indian Ocean
• South China Sea

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bloomsbury Academic

Books & works: Empires of the Southern Ocean: Early Civilizations of Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia

Places: Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam

More episodes of New Books in Archaeology

• Patrick Wyman, "Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World" (HarperCollins, 2026) · May 26, 2026 · 54 min
• John Waddell, "The Celtic World: A History" (Four Courts Press, 2026) · May 23, 2026 · 30 min
• Kristin LaFollette, "Rehumanizing People of the Past: Bioarchaeology, Medical Museums and Archives, and the Human Remains Trade" (SUNY Press, 2026) · May 20, 2026 · 55 min
• Susanna Elm and Kristina Sessa, "War and Community in Late Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2026) · April 27, 2026 · 1h 52m
• Jessica Clarke, "A New History of Ancient Roman Theatre" (Liverpool UP, 2025) · March 13, 2026 · 50 min
• Kim Bowes, "Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent" (Princeton UP, 2025) · March 12, 2026 · 1h 2m