Charles F Higham
University of Otago, Anthropology and Archaeology, Faculty Member
- Charles Higham is an archaeologist who has specialised in the later prehistory of Southeast Asia. Through a series of... moreCharles Higham is an archaeologist who has specialised in the later prehistory of Southeast Asia. Through a series of excavations in Thailand and Cambodia, he has contributed to establishing the basic chronology from the later hunter gatherers to the end of the Iron Age. His contributions include illuminating the integration between the indigenous hunter gatherers and the first farmers, the origins, dating and impact of copper-base metallurgy and the agricultural revolution of the late Iron Age as an adaptation to an increasingly dry climate that presaged the rise of early states. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of New Zealand and holds the Order of New Zealand Merit.edit
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Ban Chiang is a prehistoric settlement located in the northeast Khorat Plateau in Thailand. Excavations in 1974–1975 identified a cultural sequence that spanned the arrival of the first rice farmers in ca. 1500 BC until the end of the... more
Ban Chiang is a prehistoric settlement located in the northeast Khorat Plateau in Thailand. Excavations in 1974–1975 identified a cultural sequence that spanned the arrival of the first rice farmers in ca. 1500 BC until the end of the Iron Age two millennia later. The large faunal sample includes the remains of mammals, fish, birds, and shellfish that illuminate aspects of the economy and environment. Domestic cattle, water buffaloes, pigs, and dogs, all domesticated in southern China, were introduced and maintained in an economy that incorporated hunting, fishing and collecting shellfish. The jungle fowl, Gallus gallus, was probably locally domesticated. When considered in its broader context, the faunal remains from Neolithic coastal Vietnamese and Thai sites present a very different picture. In the coastal sites, pigs and dogs dominate, but domestic cattle and chickens are virtually absent. The incoming farmers placed much reliance on marine hunting and fishing. Recent multidisciplinary research has identified an agricultural revolution involving animal traction and plowing in irrigated rice fields that occurred as the monsoon rains faltered from ca. AD 200. This took place in the relatively dry Mun River Valley in the southern part of the Khorat Plateau and rapidly led to the foundation of early states. Ban Chiang, however, enjoys higher natural rainfall and evidence for the agricultural revolution there appears muted or absent.
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Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao are two large, moated prehistoric settlements in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Northeast Thailand. Excavations in 1997-8 revealed a cultural sequence that began in the late Bronze Age, followed by four mortuary... more
Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao are two large, moated prehistoric settlements in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Northeast Thailand. Excavations in 1997-8 revealed a cultural sequence that began in the late Bronze Age, followed by four mortuary phases covering the Iron Age. This report describes the palaeoenvironment, excavation, chronology and material culture, human remains and social structure of the prehistoric inhabitants of these two sites. It is the second volume reporting on the research programme "The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor".
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When the first rice farmers expanded into Southeast Asia from the north about 4,000 y ago, they interacted with hunter-gatherer communities with an ancestry in the region of at least 50 millennia. Rigorously dated prehistoric sites in the... more
When the first rice farmers expanded into Southeast Asia from the north about 4,000 y ago, they interacted with hunter-gatherer communities with an ancestry in the region of at least 50 millennia. Rigorously dated prehistoric sites in the upper Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand have revealed a 12-phase sequence beginning with the first farmers followed by the adoption of bronze and then iron metallurgy leading on to the rise of early states. On the basis of the burial rituals involving interment with a wide range of mortuary offerings and associated practices, we identify, by computing the values of the Gini coefficient, at least two periods of intensified social inequality. The first occurred during the initial Bronze Age that, we suggest, reflected restricted elite ownership of exotic valuables within an exchange choke point. The second occurred during the later Iron Age when increased aridity stimulated an agricultural revolution that rapidly led to the first state societies in mainland Southeast Asia.
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Research Interests: Geography and Archaeology
A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.
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Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Geology, Anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, and 15 morePaleoecology, Ecology, Southeast Asian Archaeology, Pleistocene, Prehistory, Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene, Cave, Holocene, NISP, Pleistocene Holocene Transition, Asian Perspectives, Hoabinhian, Faunal Assemblage, MNI, and Hunter Gatherer Archaeology
Two distinct population models have been put forward to explain present-day human diversity in Southeast Asia. The first model proposes long-term continuity (Regional Continuity model) while the other suggests two waves of dispersal (Two... more
Two distinct population models have been put forward to explain present-day human diversity in Southeast Asia. The first model proposes long-term continuity (Regional Continuity model) while the other suggests two waves of dispersal (Two Layer model). Here, we use whole-genome capture in combination with shotgun sequencing to generate 25 ancient human genome sequences from mainland and island Southeast Asia, and directly test the two competing hypotheses. We find that early genomes from Hoabinhian hunter-gatherer contexts in Laos and Malaysia have genetic affinities with the Onge hunter-gatherers from the Andaman Islands, while Southeast Asian Neolithic farmers have a distinct East Asian genomic ancestry related to present-day Austroasiatic-speaking populations. We also identify two further migratory events, consistent with the expansion of speakers of Austronesian languages into Island Southeast Asia ca. 4 kya, and the expansion by East Asians into northern Vietnam ca. 2 kya. These...
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The expansion of copper-base metallurgy in the mainland of Eurasia began in the Near East and ended in Southeast Asia. The recognition of this Southeast Asian metallurgical province followed in the wake of French colonial occupation of... more
The expansion of copper-base metallurgy in the mainland of Eurasia began in the Near
East and ended in Southeast Asia. The recognition of this Southeast Asian metallurgical
province followed in the wake of French colonial occupation of Cambodia and Laos in the
nineteenth century. Subsequently, most research has concentrated in Thailand, beginning
in the 1960s. A sound chronology is the prerequisite to identifying both the origins of the
Bronze Age, and the social impact that metallurgy may have had on society. This article
presents the revolutionary results of excavations at the site of Ban Non Wat in northeast
Thailand within the broader cultural context of Southeast Asian prehistory, concluding
that the adoption of copper-base metallurgy from the eleventh century bc coincided with
the rise of wealthy social aggrandizers.
East and ended in Southeast Asia. The recognition of this Southeast Asian metallurgical
province followed in the wake of French colonial occupation of Cambodia and Laos in the
nineteenth century. Subsequently, most research has concentrated in Thailand, beginning
in the 1960s. A sound chronology is the prerequisite to identifying both the origins of the
Bronze Age, and the social impact that metallurgy may have had on society. This article
presents the revolutionary results of excavations at the site of Ban Non Wat in northeast
Thailand within the broader cultural context of Southeast Asian prehistory, concluding
that the adoption of copper-base metallurgy from the eleventh century bc coincided with
the rise of wealthy social aggrandizers.
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Abstract The archaeological record in mainland Southeast Asia from ca. 2000 b.c. to the formation of early states in the mid-first millennium a.d. is built on excavations in mounded settlements that incorporate habitation, industrial, and... more
Abstract The archaeological record in mainland Southeast Asia from ca. 2000 b.c. to the formation of early states in the mid-first millennium a.d. is built on excavations in mounded settlements that incorporate habitation, industrial, and mortuary remains. For most sites, formation processes are not readily identified. have presented a new view of the social organization of the Southeast Asian “metal age” based on a reinterpretation of mortuary and settlement data, founded on their premise that the dead were interred in, under, or in conjunction with domestic residences rather than dedicated cemeteries. They argue that such house societies were instruments for remarkably long-term occupation of individual settlements by heterarchic, non-violent supravillage affiliative social groupings. A detailed examination of the evidence for such residential burial suggests a lack of convincing evidence until the Iron Age. Moreover, new dating programs have shortened the prehistoric sequence, leading to more rapid and intense social changes than hitherto suspected.
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Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs were introduced to the islands of Oceania via Island Southeast Asia around 3,300 years ago, and reached the eastern islands of Polynesia by the fourteenth century AD. This dispersal is intimately... more
Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs were introduced to the islands of Oceania via Island Southeast Asia around 3,300 years ago, and reached the eastern islands of Polynesia by the fourteenth century AD. This dispersal is intimately tied to human expansion, but the involvement of dogs in Pacific migrations is not well understood. Our analyses of seven new complete ancient mitogenomes and five partial mtDNA sequences from archaeological dog specimens from Mainland and Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific suggests at least three dog dispersal events into the region, in addition to the introduction of dingoes to Australia. We see an early introduction of dogs to Island Southeast Asia, which does not appear to extend into the islands of Oceania. A shared haplogroup identified between Iron Age Taiwanese dogs, terminal-Lapita and post-Lapita dogs suggests that at least one dog lineage was introduced to Near Oceania by or as the result of interactions with Austronesian language spea...
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Graeme Barker & Lucy Farr (ed.). Archaeological investigations in the Niah Caves , Sarawak (The archaeology of the Niah Caves, Sarawak 2). 2016. xxx + 562 pages. 298 b&w illustrations, 115 tables, CD-ROM (with an additional xv + 339 pages, 76 colour and b&w illustrations, 82 tables). Cambridge: M...more
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As the scholarly border between China and Southeast Asia has dissipated, so the vast region from the Yangtze River to Malaysia has been integrated into a whole. There was an inexorable expansion of copper-base expertise southward,... more
As the scholarly border between China and Southeast Asia has dissipated, so the vast region from the Yangtze River to Malaysia has been integrated into a whole. There was an inexorable expansion of copper-base expertise southward, reaching Lingnan and Yunnan by 1400-1200 bc, and Southeast Asia one or two centuries later, with ultimate origins in the Asian steppes via the Chinese Central Plains and Sichuan. As prospectors identified and exploited the Southeast Asian copper mines, a limited range of copper-base artefacts moved along established exchange routes, including socketed axes, bangles and spears. At first rare and used to advertise status in communities advantaged by a strategic location, with increased production and in situ casting within consumer settlements, bronzes were no longer associated with social elites. Only with different regional stimuli during the Iron Age, were bronzes again employed by societies characterized by social inequality.
This paper integrates the later prehistory of mainland Southeast Asia with that of the extensive and varied lands north to the Yangtze River and beyond. Five millennia ago, rice cultivation had long been established in the Yangtze... more
This paper integrates the later prehistory of mainland Southeast Asia with that of the extensive and varied lands north to the Yangtze River and beyond. Five millennia ago, rice cultivation had long been established in the Yangtze catchment, sustaining the early state centered at Liangzhu. This presents a sharp contrast to the complex hunter-gatherer communities then occupying favorable coastal and riverine habitats in Southeast Asia. Thereafter, numerous contacts are identifiable. These involved the movement south of rice and millet farmers, via the coast and strategic river courses that led to integration with long-established hunter-gatherers, as well as the introduction of a wide range of material skills. The exchange of desirable prestige items in jade and shell spanned considerable distances. The reach of the powerful early states of the Central Plains of the Yellow River and Sichuan involved prospecting for copper and tin ores, and progressive adoption of copper-base technologies into Southeast Asia. Having reviewed these broad patterns of interaction, I focus on describing and evaluating the fine details of the social changes that are illuminated by new Bayesian chronologies and extensive excavations in key sites.
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The population history of anatomically modern humans (AMH) in Southeast Asia (SEA) is a highly debated topic. The impact of sea level variations related to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Neolithic diffusion on past population... more
The population history of anatomically modern humans (AMH) in Southeast Asia (SEA) is a highly debated topic. The impact of sea level variations related to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Neolithic diffusion on past population dispersals are two key issues. We have investigated competing AMH dispersal hypotheses in SEA through the analysis of dental phenotype shape variation on the basis of very large archaeological samples employing two complementary approaches. We first explored the structure of between- and within-group shape variation of permanent human molar crowns. Second, we undertook a direct test of competing hypotheses through a modeling approach. Our results identify a significant LGM-mediated AMH expansion and a strong biological impact of the spread of Neolithic farmers into SEA during the Holocene. The present work thus favors a "multiple AMH dispersal" hypothesis for the population history of SEA, reconciling phenotypic and recent genomic data.
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at points is cut clear of the ground, suggests that some of the models were in ivory. Among the flanking essays, Charles Thomas expands on his earlier studies of post-and-panel shrines, usefully now distinguishing their origin and form... more
at points is cut clear of the ground, suggests that some of the models were in ivory. Among the flanking essays, Charles Thomas expands on his earlier studies of post-and-panel shrines, usefully now distinguishing their origin and form from those of the Irish tent-like structures. Stephen Driscoll argues that the sarcophagus provides part of the evidence for a change in Pictish statements of power in the course of the 8th and 9th centuries. More provocatively Dauvit Broun returns to the issue of Pictish and Dalriadic kings in the years around 800. Whilst acknowledging the uncertainty of our source material for the period, he shows convincingly that there is no need to accept the conventional picture of a dynasty of Pictish kings of Dalriadic ancestry ruling in the east from 789 to 839. Instead he suggests that three Fortriu kings were intruded into Dal Riata lists and that these kings were associated with the foundations of St Andrews and Dunkeld. In effect, when the sarcophagus was carved St Andrews was under Pictish, not Gaelic, rule. Doug McClean, Steven Plunkett and Nancy Edwards examine the stone from Northumbrian, Mercian and Irish perspectives. Their chapters supply valuable summaries of current scholarship on the sculpture of those three regions, Plunkett’s essay in particular giving us a taste of his long-awaited work on eastern Mercia. What clearly emerges from all their papers is that other artists in Britain were contemporaneously pre-occupied with similar themes and techniques to those being exploited at St Andrews and were drawing on analogous eastern and metalwork models. All can point to material from their areas which is in some sense related to the art of the sarcophagus but none, sensibly, attempts to argue for any dominant influence from their region on the St Andrews carving: the seeming links are often best explained in terms of similarities between the cultural contexts from which the carvings emerged. In a similar vein Edward James’ analysis of the Continental evidence shows that, whilst the sarcophagus belongs within a general tradition of European burial practice and sculptural art, it remains a highly original piece without any direct inspiration from the stone carvings of the Continent. The hook will undoubtedly prove an essential reference work for all concerned with the study of early medieval art in Britain; the sponsors and editor are to be congratulated on its wide-ranging content and its commendably rapid production. RICHARD N. BAILEY University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
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B. Bellina-Pryce & P. Silapanth. 2006. Weaving cultural identities on trans-Asiatic networks: Upper Thai-Malay Peninsula – an early socio-political landscape. Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême Orient 93: 257-94. [Full volume citation: Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême Orient 93 (2006)...more
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Almost half a century has elapsed since the first area excavation of a prehistoric site in north-east Thailand at Non Nok Tha (Bayard & Solheim 2010) (Figure 1). A long and still unresolved debate has ensued, centred on the chronology of... more
Almost half a century has elapsed since the first area excavation of a prehistoric site in north-east Thailand at Non Nok Tha (Bayard & Solheim 2010) (Figure 1). A long and still unresolved debate has ensued, centred on the chronology of the establishment of rice farming and bronze casting, that has dovetailed with further controversies on the pace and nature of social change. Results obtained during the past 20 years of fieldwork focused on the upper Mun Valley of north-east Thailand, together with a new series of AMS radiocarbon determinations from key sites, have thrown into sharp relief contrasting interpretations of two issues: one centres on the timing and origin of the Neolithic settlement; the other on the date and impact of copper-base metallurgy. A consensus through debate would bring us to a tipping point that would see Southeast Asian prehistory turn to more interesting issues of cultural change.
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The history of inquiry into the Bronze Age of Southeast Asia began with the discovery of copper-base tools and ornaments at Samrong Sen in Cambodia during the 1860s. After a series of analytical papers were published, the subject became... more
The history of inquiry into the Bronze Age of Southeast Asia began with the discovery of copper-base tools and ornaments at Samrong Sen in Cambodia during the 1860s. After a series of analytical papers were published, the subject became dormant until in 1964, burials with a few bronzes were excavated at Non Nok Tha in northeast Thailand. Initial results of radiocarbon dating suggested a remarkable early adoption of metallurgy, reinforced by equally early contexts in the fourth millennium BC claimed at the nearby site of Ban Chiang. This situation provided a conundrum: whereas elsewhere in the Old World copper-base technology stimulated rapid social change, in Southeast Asia there was none. New dating initiatives, linked with the excavation of the Thai site of Ban Non Wat have provided evidence for a transition into the Bronze Age in the eleventh century BC and a rapid rise of wealthy, social elites.
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The transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture took place over millennia in northern China, where millet was the mainstay, and the Yangtze River Valley, where rice dominated. Plant and animal domestication, known as the... more
The transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture took place over millennia in northern China, where millet was the mainstay, and the Yangtze River Valley, where rice dominated. Plant and animal domestication, known as the Neolithic Revolution, stimulated population growth and the expansion into territories occupied still by hunter-gatherers. By 2000 BC, early Neolithic groups were reaching Southeast Asia, and their settlements contrast sharply with those of their hunter-gatherer contemporaries. In some sites, there is growing evidence for integration between the two populations, while plant cultivation and the raising of domestic pigs, dogs, and cattle were combined with fishing, collecting, and hunting. The Neolithic was a seminal period in Southeast Asia, laying the foundations for profound social changes made possible through the wealth generated by agricultural surpluses.
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Mortuary data from three Iron Age sites in Northeast Thailand and three in Northwest Cambodia are here reviewed for information on social formation on the cusp of early states. It has been suggested that the three Cambodian sites present... more
Mortuary data from three Iron Age sites in Northeast Thailand and three in Northwest Cambodia are here reviewed for information on social formation on the cusp of early states. It has been suggested that the three Cambodian sites present evidence for a complex polity with three social tiers and that this contrasts with the lack of any evidence for equivalent complexity in the three communities in the upper Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand. This model is examined and queried on the basis of insufficient data for the Cambodian sites, and contestable statistical analysis. In its place, an alternative is presented, that identifies a critically important climatic deterioration causing increased aridity which stimulated the development of plough-based wet rice cultivation in irrigated permanent fields. In the upper Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand, this coincided with a swift rise in social elites, interred in lineage-based nuclei in which leading individuals were accompanied by unprecede...
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<p>(OxCal. v4.2.4 Bronk Ramsey (2009 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0137542#pone.0137542.ref038" target="_blank">38</a>]); r:5 IntCal13 atmospheric curve... more
<p>(OxCal. v4.2.4 Bronk Ramsey (2009 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0137542#pone.0137542.ref038" target="_blank">38</a>]); r:5 IntCal13 atmospheric curve (Reimer et al. 2013 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0137542#pone.0137542.ref039" target="_blank">39</a>]).</p
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The long-awaited definitive chronology for the period from the initial use of bronze metallurgy to the end of the Iron Age on the Khorat Plateau of Northeast Thailand has received near universal acceptance. In this review, we trace how... more
The long-awaited definitive chronology for the period from the initial use of bronze metallurgy to the end of the Iron Age on the Khorat Plateau of Northeast Thailand has received near universal acceptance. In this review, we trace how bronze was deployed, and assess its social impact from the late Neolithic communities that first encountered metal to the civilization of Angkor. We identify eight phases that, for the prehistoric period, centred on the anchor site of Ban Non Wat, beginning in the eleventh century BC with imported copper axes and the opening of the first mines and associated smelting sites. This was followed in the second and third phases of the Bronze Age by a dramatic increase in mortuary wealth in the graves of social aggrandizers. After about eight generations, bronzes were locally cast in bivalve moulds. However, no further elite burials were found and bronze mortuary offerings were very rare. From about 400 BC, the opening of seaborne exchange networks, the establishment of dynastic China and climatic change then stimulated marked regionality. On the Khorat Plateau, many more bronzes were interred with the dead, but casting activity in the consumer sites declined. In the early centuries AD, increased aridity stimulated an agricultural revolution as sites were ringed by reservoirs and wet rice was grown in ploughed fields. This was accompanied by a surge in the range and number of bronzes with the new social elite that within a century led to the formation of early states. The new royalty now sponsored bronze statues, leading directly on to the dynastic foundries of Angkor, when massive bronzes reflected royal divinity.
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The inland plains of Southeast Asia are a void in terms of early occupation by hunter gatherers. Two radiocarbon determinations from basal Ban Non Wat on the Khorat Plateau date a shell midden and possibly associated human and deer... more
The inland plains of Southeast Asia are a void in terms of early occupation by hunter gatherers. Two radiocarbon determinations from basal Ban Non Wat on the Khorat Plateau date a shell midden and possibly associated human and deer remains between 18000-20000 years ago.
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Farming in Southeast Asia is dominated two major crops, rice and millet, and domestic pigs, cattle, water buffalo, chickens, and dogs. The domestication of these species took place in China, and the first farmers began to settle Southeast... more
Farming in Southeast Asia is dominated two major crops, rice and millet, and domestic pigs, cattle, water buffalo, chickens, and dogs. The domestication of these species took place in China, and the first farmers began to settle Southeast Asia in the early second millennium bc. They integrated with the indigenous hunter-gatherers, and were heavily reliant not only on their crops and domestic animals, but also on hunting, gathering, and fishing. An agricultural revolution took place during the Iron Age, involving plough agriculture in permanent fields. Ownership of improved land would have stimulated the rise of social elites and dependent craft specialists, factors underlying the rapid formation of early states.
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Archaeology, linguistics and the expansion of the East and Southeast Asian Neolithic Charles FW Higham INTRODUCTION The conjunction of archaeological and linguistic data has a long ancestry in Southeast Asia, where the first recorded... more
Archaeology, linguistics and the expansion of the East and Southeast Asian Neolithic Charles FW Higham INTRODUCTION The conjunction of archaeological and linguistic data has a long ancestry in Southeast Asia, where the first recorded instance of comparative linguistics in ...
This lecture discusses the origins of the civilisation of Angkor. The location of this civilisation presents several unique advantages, such as sufficient rainfall and permanent settlement. It looks at the dynasty founded by Jayavarman in... more
This lecture discusses the origins of the civilisation of Angkor. The location of this civilisation presents several unique advantages, such as sufficient rainfall and permanent settlement. It looks at the dynasty founded by Jayavarman in Angkor, which lasted for two-hundred years. Most of the lecture presents archaeological findings and maps, which provide a look at the ancient kingdom in Angkor.
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... I thank Bernard Maloney (pollen, sediments, fern spores and phytoliths), Irwin Rovner (phytohths),Kenneth McKenzie (forams and ostracods), Philip Houghton ... My final note of appreciation is to Pisit Charoen-wongsa and his colleagues... more
... I thank Bernard Maloney (pollen, sediments, fern spores and phytoliths), Irwin Rovner (phytohths),Kenneth McKenzie (forams and ostracods), Philip Houghton ... My final note of appreciation is to Pisit Charoen-wongsa and his colleagues at the Fine Arts Department in Bangkok ...
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Book reviews. Michael D. Petraglia & Bridget Allchin (ed.). The Evolution and History of Human Populations in South Asia: Inter-disciplinary Studies in Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Linguistics and Genetics. xiv+464 pages, 109 illustrations, 43 tables. 2007. Dordrecht: Springer; 978-1-402...more
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... Las hembras permanecen en el grupo hasta la edad adulta, momento en que muchas se unen a otros grupos distintos. La madre chimpancé forja vínculos emocio-nales muy intensos con sus pequeños, al igual que la madre hu-mana. ...
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The Neolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia is considered to be the period of human prehistory that commenced with the transition from hunting and gathering into mixed economies of foraging and farming. It lasted until the appearance of... more
The Neolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia is considered to be the period of human prehistory that commenced with the transition from hunting and gathering into mixed economies of foraging and farming. It lasted until the appearance of copper and bronze metallurgy and thus dates between circa 2500 and 1200 BC. In Vietnam, Neolithic sites and cultures are recorded especially around the edges of the Red River delta, along the northern and central coasts, and in the southern river basins between the Đông Nai and lower Mekong. This period of Vietnamese prehistory was characterized by the southward movements of East Asian Neolithic populations from southern China across Mainland Southeast Asia, the introduction of cereal cultivation (rice and foxtail millet), and the management of domesticated pigs and dogs. The Neolithic of Vietnam also reveals material culture relationships extending from southern China to central Thailand. Recent research is also starting to highlight social and cultura...
Research Interests: Geography and Archaeology
Non Nok Tha was discovered 50 years ago, and has long been established as one of the key sites of Southeast Asian prehistory. Excavations by Bayard and Solheim in 1966 and 1968 uncovered what is still one of the largest as-semblages of... more
Non Nok Tha was discovered 50 years ago, and has long been established as one of the key sites of Southeast Asian prehistory. Excavations by Bayard and Solheim in 1966 and 1968 uncovered what is still one of the largest as-semblages of prehistoric burials in this region. It docu-ments settlement by early Neolithic rice farmers, and incorporates the transition into the Bronze Age. Initial publications claimed exceptionally early copper base technology, and both the chronology and the social corre-lates of early agriculture and metallurgy have attracted much attention, and remain controversial. This paper presents a new series of AMS radiocarbon determinations obtained on collagen derived from the bones of those who lived at Non Nok Tha. These indicate an initial settlement phase by rice farmers that began in the mid second mil-lennium BC. The Bronze Age cemetery dates between about 900-600 BC. The relatively few mortuary offerings in both phases suggest minimal social ranking.
We report a successful extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA from carbonized rice grains (Oryza sativa) from six archaeological sites, including two from India and four from Thailand, ranging in age from ca. 2500 to 1500 BP. In total,... more
We report a successful extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA from carbonized rice grains (Oryza sativa) from six archaeological sites, including two from India and four from Thailand, ranging in age from ca. 2500 to 1500 BP. In total, 221 archaeological grains were processed by PCR amplification and primary-targeted fragments were sequenced for comparison with modern sequences generated from 112 modern rice populations, including crop and wild varieties. Our results include the genetic sequences from both the chloroplast and the nuclear genomes, based on four markers from the chloroplast and six from the nuclear genome. These markers allow differentiation of indica rice from japonica rice, the two major subspecies of Asian rice (O. sativa) considered to have separate geographical origins. One nuclear marker differentiates tropical and temperate forms of subspecies japonica. Other markers relate to phenotypic variation selected for under domestication, such as non-shattering, grain stickiness (waxy starch) and pericarp colour. Recovery and identification of sequences from nuclear markers was generally poor, whereas recovery of chloroplast sequences was successful, with at least one of four markers recovered in 61 % of archaeological grains. This allowed for successful differentiation of indica or japonica subspecies variety, with japonica identified in all the Thai material and a mixture of indica and japonica chloroplasts in the two Indian assemblages. Rice subspecies was also assessed through conventional archaeobotanical methods relying on grain metrics, based on measurements from 13 modern populations and 499 archaeological grains. Grain metrics also suggest a predominance of japonica-type grains in the Southeast Asian sites and a mixture of japonica and indica in the Indian sites with indica in the minority. The similar results of grain metrics and ancient DNA (aDNA) affirm that grain measurements have some degree of reliability in rice subspecies identification. The study also highlights the great potential of ancient DNA recovery from archaeological rice. The data generated in the present study adds support to the model of rice evolution that includes hybridization between japonica and proto-indica.
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Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in... more
Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian
domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the
reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient
DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the
Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support
for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have
been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.P. and in the Pacific at 3000 B.P. indicating
multiple prehistoric dispersals from a single Asian centre. These two dispersal pathways converged in the Americas where
chickens were introduced both by Polynesians and later by Europeans. The results of this study also highlight the
inappropriate application of the small stretch of D-loop, traditionally amplified for use in phylogenetic studies, to
understanding discrete episodes of chicken translocation in the past. The results of this study lead to the proposal of four
hypotheses which will require further scrutiny and rigorous future testing.
domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the
reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient
DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the
Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support
for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have
been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.P. and in the Pacific at 3000 B.P. indicating
multiple prehistoric dispersals from a single Asian centre. These two dispersal pathways converged in the Americas where
chickens were introduced both by Polynesians and later by Europeans. The results of this study also highlight the
inappropriate application of the small stretch of D-loop, traditionally amplified for use in phylogenetic studies, to
understanding discrete episodes of chicken translocation in the past. The results of this study lead to the proposal of four
hypotheses which will require further scrutiny and rigorous future testing.
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This 600-pages publication was printed for the exhibition "Treasures of Vietnamese Archaeology", which was shown in Germany at the museums in Herne, Chemnitz and Mannheim from October 2016 to January 2018. Since April 2018, the exhibition... more
This 600-pages publication was printed for the exhibition "Treasures of Vietnamese Archaeology", which was shown in Germany at the museums in Herne, Chemnitz and Mannheim from October 2016 to January 2018. Since April 2018, the exhibition can also be seen at the National Museum of Vietnamese History in Hanoi.
The catalogue contains 15 detailed essays on the various periods and on some special topics. Besides, 19 short contributions mainly on important archaeological sites are included as well as detailed descriptions of around 350 exhibits from all periods of Vietnam's prehistory and history from the whole country.
The catalogue contains 15 detailed essays on the various periods and on some special topics. Besides, 19 short contributions mainly on important archaeological sites are included as well as detailed descriptions of around 350 exhibits from all periods of Vietnam's prehistory and history from the whole country.
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New evidence from archaeological investigations in north-east Thailand shows a transition in rice farming towards wetland cultivation that would have facilitated greater yields and surpluses. This evidence, combined with new dates and... more
New evidence from archaeological investigations in north-east Thailand shows a transition in rice farming towards wetland cultivation that would have facilitated greater yields and surpluses. This evidence, combined with new dates and palaeoclimatic data, suggests that this transition took place in the Iron Age, at a time of increasingly arid climate, and when a number of broader societal changes become apparent in the archaeological record. For the first time, it is possible to relate changes in subsistence economy to shifts in regional climate and water-management strategies, and to the
emergence of state societies in Southeast Asia.
emergence of state societies in Southeast Asia.