ABSTRACT
Champa is a generic name used to describe a series of small coastal kingdoms that developed in central Vietnam during the first millennium ad. The early Champa culture has historically been associated with the Cham ethnic group, who belong to the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family, a branch which also includes the native peoples of the Philippines, Borneo, Malaysia and most of the Indonesian archipelago, with whom cultural ties were maintained into the modern era. The political and cultural transitions of the late second and early third centuries ad can also be recognised in the archaeological assemblages. The Han administration in central Vietnam was therefore strictly limited in duration, in the degree of its control and in its geographic extent. The return of South China Sea trade to Guangzhou was also complemented by a parallel return to the economic and political prominence of Quang Nam.
