The Maritime Asia Heritage Survey aims to systematically inventory and document endangered tangible cultural heritage – including mosques, cemeteries, Buddhist temple ruins, and other historical structures and physical objects – through digital photography, laser scanning, 3D modelling, and GIS to create an open-access resource website and heritage database.;xNLx;;xNLx;The materials documented through this work are critically endangered, facing both natural and human threats that jeopardize the survival and accessibility of historical information for this vital node in pre-modern global economic and religious networks at the cross-roads of an interconnected Indian Ocean world.;xNLx;;xNLx;The project, based at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, is led by Dr Michael Feener and funded by Arcadia. Work in the country is done in partnership with the Maldives Department of Heritage (now National Center for Cultural Heritage) and with the support of Washington University’s SaieLab and the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technological University.
Brief mention of the Maldives by Ptolemy
Bronze and copper artifacts of the Dong Son style appear in Java, Sumatra, and southern Moluccas
Early date range of sherds of Indian rouletted ware, as well as glass beads of apparently Indian manufacture found at burial sites on Bali in northwest Java
Radiocarbon dates from Nilandhoo Foamathi, Faafu Atoll represent the earliest recorded occupation in the Maldives
The three-month reign of Sulṭān ‘Īsa, younger half-brother of Sulṭān Ḥasan II
Probable initial construction of the Buddhist monastery at Kuruhinna Tharaagadu on Kaashidhoo Island, Kaafu Atoll
Reign of Sanjaya of Mataram, a Javanese agrarian state in central Java that had adopted Shaivism as a state religion exercising influence over parts of Sumatra, and Bali
Second phase of building of Kuruhinna Tharaaga'du Buddhist monastery.
Earliest Arab reference to trade with Dībājāt by Sulāyman al-Tājir. The term Dībājāt here is taken to refer collectively to the Maldive and Laccadive islands.
