Stone Age
1. The Kwai River 2. Khun Phaen Cave - the exit is near the flat plateau on the top of the rock. 3. The main entrance to the Museum.
immediately to be a member of the expedition. Over the years until 1968 many Danish archeologists and other scientists spend time and efforts doing yearly field work and digging both in Ban Kao and in the rock shelter of Tam Phra in Sai Yok, some 30 kilometers further north. All caves around the area were visited. They published their results and among them should be mentioned Dr. Per Soerensen and the wellknown Arctic explorer Count Eigil Knuth who published many results together with van Heekeren. The work really yielded a rich harvest; thousands of items were found and catalogued, from kitchen utensils to jewelry. Among the very important finds were human skeletons. They, together with many of the artifacts, were sent to The National Museum in Copenhagen. A sort of loan agreement was made, also because The National Museum in Bangkok did not have expertise for further examinations and study. Now, some items are also in Bangkok and only a small fraction in Ban Kao, but among them some very interesting and beautiful pieces, many in a good condition and showing the functional design always present in ordinary peoples tools. The original burial place is emptied and not accessible any more.
The Museum The museum is sitting in a well kept garden with big trees. The buildings are not so well maintained, lack of funds is obvious. At the main entrance foreigners pay 50 Baht and Thais 10. A trifle ironic maybe since it was the foreigners who excavated all the artifacts. As in many museums all the most sensitive objects are behind glass in exhibition cases and it is not allowed to take photos; that would also be difficult because of the reflexes. So you have to go and see for yourself; although the museum is not big, a visit is worth the tour. The big tableaus of Stone Age people (scale 1:5) hunting, fishing, preparing food etc. will be of interest, maybe especially for the kids. Interesting are also the wooden coffins. First the archeologists believed these wooden structures to be boats, although of a bit strange construction fore and aft. Then they had the luck to find skeletons in some of them and it could be established that they were coffins - with a roof.
2 3 trance, situated as it is three quarters up the grey vertical rock. The cave is very big, fractioned, impressing and somewhat typical for the caves in the district, although we cannot be sure whether the Danish archeologists also worked here. It must have been an ideal hide and maybe home for the Stone Age people, easy to defend and spacious. In later periods it also served as spiritual retreat and hide out for the monks. There are of course no artifacts from the Stone Age left but many Buddha images placed around. - Under all circumstances, the cave will immediately talk to children’s Dinosaur fantasies - a visit will really make their day and tire them out.
Getting There Things and places can be hard to find in Thailand and the valley north of Kanchanaburi is absolutely no exception, the area is crisscrossed
with a lot of small roads, inaccurately mapped. Therefore this route description for your convenience: From the Northern intersection in Kanchanaburi town (Muang) take highway 323 direction Sai Yok. After app. 15 kilometers you find a monastery to the left. Here is also the entrance to Khun Paen Cave. A few hundred meters onwards there is an intersection with traffic lights. Turn left, route 3229, towards Ban Kao Village and the National Museum. After app. another 15 kilometers you pass the railway. Thereafter you immediately see this marvelous collection of road signs. Turn around The King, to the right on route 3455, and drive around 2 kilometers. Then there is a paved blind road, app. 1 kilometer leading to the museum. I would recommend that you visit the museum first and then the cave on the way back, that way I suppose the cave will ‘speak’ more.
The Cave At the Mountain cave of Khun Phaen Monastry, only 15 kilometers from Ban Kao, you have to drive to the end of the blind road from highway 323, then climb up 200 steep but safe steps to reach the cave enOctober 2011 • ScandAsia.Thailand 23