As early as the second century CE, Chinese records indicate that government policies and trade networks facilitated extensive trade across the region. Excavations throughout Southeast Asia have uncovered Indian jewelery, Roman glassware, and ceramics from Persia, China, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Silver coins commonly depicting a rising sun on one side and an early symbol of Indian religious traditions called the Srivatsa on the other are often associated with these finds. Archeologists have uncovered these coins from present-day Bangladesh south to Vietnam, an area that encompasses all of Indianized Southeast Asia. This also means that ancient coinage like these silver pieces played an instrumental role in shaping trade and cultural connections in Southeast Asia.