Udon (Thai: อุดรธานี; English: UdonThani) is a province of Thailand, belonging to, with a population of 1,467,158 (2000) and a land area of 11,730 square kilometers, with UdonThani as the capital of Udon. Udon is a transportation and trade hub where there is easy access to Khon Kaen in the south and Nong Khai in the north. The area's main attraction for tourists is the prehistoric artifacts unearthed in Ban Thanh, where archaeologists unearthed bronze artifacts dating back more than 4,000 years in the 1970s. The excavated artifacts include: fossils, tools and a large number of pottery bronzes. From these discoveries, it can be proved that the appearance of bronzes in this area is much earlier than previously thought.