After a series of archaeological excavations in the 1960s by the Fine Arts Department of Thailand and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,Ban Chiang, a small village in Nong Han district, Udon Thani province, became famous, known in every corner of the world as a prehistoric community with agriculture, animal domestication, metallurgical expertise, and unique painted pottery, the producers of the Ban Chiang Style' cultural tradition that spread throughout the upper northeastern region of Thailand durintg the past 1,500 to 5,000 years.
Archaeological work at Ban Chiang did not end during that important series of excavations but expanded its scope of exploration to other sites in the Northeast and throughout Thailand. There was development both in data collecting techniques in the field, in forming hypotheses, and in conception and theories that inspired continued development in the academic field of Thai prehistoric archaeology to the present.