Deep history extends the scope of historical inquiry beyond the limits of written documentation, drawing on archaeology, paleoanthropology, genetics, linguistics, and environmental science to illuminate the distant human past. Historians of gender in Southeast Asia have likewise begun to explore how gendered practices and social formations might be traced further back in time than textual sources alone allow. Although archaeological research has been more fully developed in mainland Southeast Asia, surprising discoveries in the island areas have given "deep history" a new significance. In addition, this presentation argues that the careful incorporation of non‑written materials—images, textiles, objects, and other forms of material culture—can also provide gender studies in maritime Southeast Asia with a deeper temporal foundation than previously assumed.