Charles F Higham - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Charles F Higham

Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 1988

New Evidence for Agriculture and Stock-raising in Monsoonal Southeast Asia

BRILL eBooks, 1985

Zooarchaeology of Ban Chiang and the rise of early farming communities in mainland Southeast Asia

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Nov 4, 2022

Ban Chiang is a prehistoric settlement located in the northeast Khorat Plateau in Thailand. Excav... 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.

The excavation of noen u-loke and non muang kao

Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao are two large, moated prehistoric settlements in Nakhon Ratchasima ... 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".

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Nov 8, 2021

When the first rice farmers expanded into Southeast Asia from the north about 4,000 y ago, they i... 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.

Antiquity, Jul 1, 1982

, has been working in Thailand for some years. He has drawn our attention to the fact that 30 yea... more , has been working in Thailand for some years. He has drawn our attention to the fact that 30 years have passed since P. D. R. Williams-Hunt presented in 'Antiquity' the results of the first air survey of prehistoric sites in Thailand (1950, X X I V , 30-7). It is on some of these sites that Higham has been working, and we share his view that three decades is a long enough period of silence. We also welcome his collaborator, Amphan Kijngam, Director of the N. E. Thailand Archaeological Programme, one of the eight major programmes of the Thai Fine Arts Department. He took his M.

Chronology, Duration, and Periodicity of Linear Enamel Hypoplasia at the Late Iron Age Site Non Ban Jak, Thailand: A Quantitative Microscopic Analysis

SSRN Electronic Journal

New insights into Metabolic Syndrome among ancient populations in mainland Asia

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2020

Reinterpreting Archaeobotany in Mainland Southeast Asia

PLOS ONE, 2019

After publication of this article [1], a concern was raised regarding the fifth sentence in the l... more After publication of this article [1], a concern was raised regarding the fifth sentence in the last paragraph in the Introduction section. That sentence is as follows: "The first documented movement of a chicken between two domestication centres was in 1400 BC when Chinese monks brought a chicken home from India [12]." This information was cited as originating from a 1913 paper by John Peters [2, reference 12 in the original article]. However, the identity of the human agents of transport (i.e. Chinese Monks) was not included in [2] and was taken from another source. The oft-cited information regarding the transfer of chickens in 1400 BC found in many sources (e.g., [3-7]) is all related directly to work by Charles Darwin [8]. It was in The Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication (Vol 1) where Darwin stated: "Mr. Birch of the British Museum, has translated for me passages from a Chinese Encyclopaedia published in 1609, but compiled from more ancient documents, in which it is said that fowls are creatures of the West, and were introduced to the East (i.e. China) in a dynasty 1400 B.C. Whatever may be thought of so ancient a date, we see that the Indo-Chinese and Indian regions were formally considered by the Chinese as a source of domestic fowl." It appears that later references to this date, typically without attribution to Darwin, sometimes included embellishments. For example, Brown [6] in his book Poultry Breeding and Production (Vol 1) wrote "[t]he statement has been made that Buddhist priests passed from India to China about B.C. 1,500, and that they conveyed the fowl, already domesticated in the former Country, to the Celestial Empire." Significantly, Brown went on to write "[i]t would appear that the first compulsory migration of the fowl was eastward, that is, to China, where, be it noted, the practice of husbandry was anterior by millenniums to that of western nations." As a result the fifth sentence in the last paragraph of the Introduction section should be revised to: "The first documented movement of chickens between two domestication centres is asserted to have been 1400 BC [Darwin, C (1868). The variation of animals and plants under domestication.]." The authors apologize for omitting the attribution specifically related to the identification of Chinese monks in the published article.

Archaeological Research in Asia, 2020

Excavations in 2015 at the site of Ru Diep in north-central Vietnam (Ha Tinh Province) raise sign... more Excavations in 2015 at the site of Ru Diep in north-central Vietnam (Ha Tinh Province) raise significant questions about the transition into the Neolithic in this region, more than 5000 years ago. The material culture from the site reveals a mixture of both pre-Neolithic (Quynh Van culture) and Neolithic elements, in a shell mound context. The C14 dates for the site suggest that the surviving layers were deposited between outer limits of 3200 and 2900 cal. BC, but Bayesian analysis indicates a likely accumulation in less than 50 years. This date is almost one millennium older than expected for Neolithic-related materials in north-central Vietnam.

Scientific Reports, 2019

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of t... more 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.

Two distinct population models have been put forward to explain present-day human diversity in So... 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...

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2011

The expansion of copper-base metallurgy in the mainland of Eurasia began in the Near East and end... 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.

The fish-hooks 2 2 The size distribution of fish-hooks 3 3 The clay net sinkers 12 4 The harpoons... more The fish-hooks 2 2 The size distribution of fish-hooks 3 3 The clay net sinkers 12 4 The harpoons 14 5 The bobbins 15 6 The bone awls 17 7 The bone micro-awls 19 8 The bone needle and bone disc 9 The worked stingray spines 10 The worked fish vertebrae 11 Examples of bone burnishers 12 Examples of the bone groovers 13 Examples of miscellaneous bone artefacts 39 14 The worked antler 15 The worked turtle carapace 16 Geological map of the Bang Pakong Valley 17 Geo-political map of the study area. 18 The polished stone adze terminology 19 Cache 1 cut from layer 11 into natural 20 Cache 2 cut from layer 11 into natural 21 The adzes of type 2D 22 The adzes of types 2A, 2B, 2E and 2F 23 The adzes of type 2G 5 24 The shouldered adzes of types 8B, 8E, 8F and 8H 25 The adzes of type 8D 26 Adze fragments 27 Polished stone chisels 28 The ground hoes 29 The grinding stones 30 Whetstones, an adze rough-out and worked stone 31 The miscellaneous stone artefacts • 32 The stone pounders and shale red bchre cores 33 The location of the various proposed sources of stone used at Khok Phanom Di 103 34 The right ankle of burial 15 showing the anvil and burnishing stones 106• 35 A woman from Bang Paeng, Singburi, Northern Thailand, burnishing a pot 107 36 Paddles and anvils used in forming pots, from Bang Paeng, Singburi, Northern Thailand 108 37 Burnishing stones from Khok Phanom Di and modem specimens from Northern Thailand 109 38 The burnishing stones from burials 110 and 107 112 Vll LIST OF FIGURES viii The burnishing stones from burials 132, 96, 94, 109 and 91 113 The burnishing stones from burials 123, 72, 82 and 83 114 The burnishing stones from burials 42, 29, 23, 20 and 35 115 The burnishing stones from burials 36, 15, 16 and 13 116 The burnishing stones from burial 13 117 The burnishing stones from burials 4, and 19, 6 and 1 118 The shell disc beads 120 The funnel and barrel beads 122 The I-shaped shell beads from burial 15 125 I-, Hand cylindrical shell beads 126 The disc/bangles of styles 1 and 4 from burial 43 131 The disc/bangles of style 1 132 The disc/bangles of style 1 133 Shell disc/bangles of styles 1 b and le 134 Shell disc/bangles of styles 4, 5, 8 and 9 135 Shell disc/bangles of styles 10 and 11 136 The stone disc/bangles 143 The ivory disc/bangles 149 The modified teeth 151 Modified mammalian teeth from mortuary contexts 153 The fish bone bangles 155 Unusual jewellery items from mortuary contexts 156 The turtle carapace plaques from burials 23, 24, 32 and 57 158 The turtle carapace plaque from burial 30, MP4 cat. 991 159 The turtle carapace ornaments 160 The turtle carapace disc/bangles and cores 161 The modified turtle carapace artefacts 163 The three regions of wear on prehistoric shell knives 178 S.E.M. photograph illustrating the characteristic smoothing of the lower zone of the blade's edge 179 S.E.M. photograph illustrating the smoothing apparent on the lower zone of the blade's edge 180 S .E.M. photograph taken at a higher magnification of the lower zone 181 S.E.M. photograph taken of the wear patterns produced on the lower reaches of a prehistoric shell tool 182 S.E.M. photograph illustrating the most common wear patterns present on the left and right dorsal areas of working blades 183 The method used in the creation of an experimental shell knife 185 S.E.M. photograph of the blade of a modem ground shell tool 186 The method most commonly used in harvesting grass 188 S.E.M. photograph showing the wear patterns produced after two hours grass harvesting 189 Experimental shell knife used in grass harvesting for two hours 190 Experimental shell knife used in grass harvesting for two hours 191 ix LIST OF FIGURES 78 S.E.M. photograph of an experimental shell knife used for 3 hours harvesting grass The technique used in the grass-scraping experiment 80 S.E.M. photograph taken of the wear patterns produced in the grassscraping experiments 81 S .E.M. photograph taken of the wear patterns produced in the rice-harvesting experiments 82 S.E.M. photograph taken of the wear patterns produced in the rice harvesting experiments 83 S.E.M. photograph taken of the wear patterns produced in the rice-scraping experiments, this example was used for two hours 84 S.E.M. photograph of the blade of an experimental shell knife used to work bamboo (x50) 85 S.E.M. photograph showing the wear patterns resulting from the cutting of bark cloth 86 S.E.M. photograph of wear patterns produced by processing one fish 87 S.E.M. photograph of wear patterns produced by processing two fish 201 88 S.E.M. photograph of wear patterns produced by processing three fish 89 S.E.M. photograph of wear patterns produced by processing four fish 90 S.E.M. photograph taken of the wear patterns produced in incising clay 91 S.E.M. photograph taken of the wear patterns produced in peeling taro 205 92 The shell knives 93 Worked shell of the genus Pinctada, Oliva and Nautilus pompilius 94 The shell spokeshaves 221 95 Worked shell of the genera Isognomon, Polinices and Cypraea 96 The size of the worked Placuna placenta from Khok Phanom Di 97 The worked Placuna placenta specimens from Khok Phanom Di 237 98 Incised motifs on pottery 99 Incised, impressed and incised and impressed motifs on pottery 100 Incised and impressed motifs on pottery 101 Incised and impressed motifs on pottery 247 102 Incised and impressed motifs on •pottery 103 Incised and impressed, cord-marked with smooth bands with incised lines and paddle-impressed motifs on pottery 104 Ridged and notched and applique motifs on pottery 105 The distribution of motifs by layer 251 106 Distribution and frequency of motif by mortuary phase 107 Zone positions for motif placement 267 108 Distribution of burials with pottery vessels within cluster 109 Motifs associated with clusters C and F LIST OF TABLES PAGE The fish-hooks 4 The net sinkers 5 The provenance and dimensions of the bone bobbins 8 The provenance and size of the bone awls 9 The provenance and size of the micro bone awls 10 The provenance and size of the modified fish vertebrae 24 The provenance and size of the clay pellets 38 The distribution of adzes. 50 The measurements of polished stone adzes 67 The measurements of polished stone chisels 87 11 The measurements of stone hoes 89 The percentage of grinding stones, pounders, and whetstones by layer 90 Burials containing burnishing stones 110 The distribution of disc beads 123 The distribution of barrel beads 124 The distribution ofl-beads 127 The distribution of H-beads 127 The distribution of shell disc/bangles 130 The stone disc/bangles 140 The distribution of ivory disc/bangles 150 21 The distribution of modified sharks' teeth 152 The modified mammalian teeth from mortuary contexts 152 The non-mortuary fish bone disc/bangles. 154 The fish bone disc/bangles from mortuary contexts 157 The style 12 disc/bangles of turtle carapace 162 The turtle carapace cod pieces or body plaques. 164 Miscellaneous turtle carapace artefacts 164 The chronological distribution of identified jewellery materials 165 The chronological distribution of the ornaments, based on presence and absence 166 30 The chronological distribution of the different bangle materials 167 31 The chronological distribution of disc/bangle styles 169 The distribution of bangle styles 171 The chronological comparison between the rectilinear and more complex styles 172 34 The identifiable features represented on the experimental shell tools 210 The dimensions of shell sickles 211 36 The distribution of P. placenta. 224 Worked Placuna placenta: the edges of the group A pieces 225 Worked Placuna placenta: the edges of the group B pieces 228 39 The length and width of the P lacuna placenta group A pieces 229 40 The provenance of worked Placuna sella 231 The weight of sherds with specific motifs from non-mortuary contexts 252 x xi LIST OF TABLES The distribution of motifs on non-mortuary pottery by layer and context A comparison of decorated to plain pots by gender and mortuary phase The distribution of gender-related motifs Frequency of gender-related motifs to burials with pots The distribution of motifs by zone on the pottery vessel The distribution of burials with decorated pots by cluster and sex The frequency of exclusive motifs per cluster Motifs associated with cluster F, MPS and cluster H burials through the female line 257 264 265 268 269 271 272 272 AUTHORS W E owe a deep debt of gratitude to the authors of this volume, who have contributed their skill and time towards an understanding of the environment and activities of the occupants of Khok Phanom Di. During the preparation of this volume, Jacqui Pilditch died following a long illness. All those who worked with her at Khok Phanom Di will remember her enthusiasm, dedication and the many hours she devoted to studying the jewellery. We would like this volume to serve as a memorial to her membership of our team.

Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark & Damian Evans (ed.). 2023. The Angkorian World. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge; 978-0-81535-595-3 hardback £190

Antiquity

Michael Loewe & Edward L. Shaughnessy (ed.). The Cambridge history of ancient China from the origins of civilization to 221BC . xxxi + 1148 pages, 200 figures, 12 tables. 1999. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 0-521-47030-7 hardback £80 & US$130

Antiquity, 2000

From site formation to social structure in prehistoric Thailand

Journal of Field Archaeology, 2015

Abstract The archaeological record in mainland Southeast Asia from ca. 2000 b.c. to the formation... 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.

Scientific reports, Jan 14, 2018

Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs were introduced to the islands of Oceania via Island S... 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...

Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 1988

New Evidence for Agriculture and Stock-raising in Monsoonal Southeast Asia

BRILL eBooks, 1985

Zooarchaeology of Ban Chiang and the rise of early farming communities in mainland Southeast Asia

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Nov 4, 2022

The excavation of noen u-loke and non muang kao

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Nov 8, 2021

Antiquity, Jul 1, 1982

Chronology, Duration, and Periodicity of Linear Enamel Hypoplasia at the Late Iron Age Site Non Ban Jak, Thailand: A Quantitative Microscopic Analysis

SSRN Electronic Journal

New insights into Metabolic Syndrome among ancient populations in mainland Asia

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2020

Reinterpreting Archaeobotany in Mainland Southeast Asia

PLOS ONE, 2019

Archaeological Research in Asia, 2020

Scientific Reports, 2019

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2011

Mitch Hendrickson, Miriam T. Stark & Damian Evans (ed.). 2023. The Angkorian World. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge; 978-0-81535-595-3 hardback £190

Antiquity

Antiquity, 2000

From site formation to social structure in prehistoric Thailand

Journal of Field Archaeology, 2015

Scientific reports, Jan 14, 2018

As in most parts of the world, ancient Southeast Asian metal production and exchange has been acc... more As in most parts of the world, ancient Southeast Asian metal production and exchange has been accorded great importance as a cultural and technological development with far-reaching economic and political impacts. Here we present the results of the Southeast Asian Lead Isotope Project's 2009e2012 research campaign, a systematic effort to empirically reconstruct regional metal exchange networks and their attendant social interactions c. 1000 BCec. 500 AD. The study's morpho-stylistic, technological, elemental and isotopic datasets cover early metal production (minerals and slag) and consumption (Cu, CueSn, CuePb, CueSnePb alloys) assemblages from thirty sites in eight countries. These data have either identified or substantiated long-range maritime and terrestrial exchange networks connecting Han China and Mauryan India with most of continental Southeast Asia. The variety and intensity of the attested metal exchange behaviours hints at a dynamic and innovative 1st millennium BC regional economy and the vibrant exchange of cultural practices amongst populations separated by thousands of kilometres. Important too is the provision of indirect evidence for intra-regional economic integration between the Southeast Asia's metal-consuming lowland majorities and metal-producing upland minorities. Southeast Asia has a comparable surface area and present day population to Europe, and thus our efforts represent only the beginning for diachronic and multi-scalar metal exchange research. However, archaeometallurgical methodologies have the potential to greatly improve our understanding of Southeast Asia's vast cultural diversity and interconnectedness. With this paper we lay the framework for such an endeavour and, we hope, define the major questions for its next phase.

We report a successful extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA from carbonized rice grains (Oryz... 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.

Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispe... 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.

This 600-pages publication was printed for the exhibition "Treasures of Vietnamese Archaeology", ... 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.

New evidence from archaeological investigations in north-east Thailand shows a transition in rice... 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.

Social Change and its Impact on Health at the late Iron Age Site of Non Ban Jak, Northeast Thailand.

Podium presentation given at the 16th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists. Poznan, Poland, 2017

A recent reassessment of the timing of social and technological developments in northeast Thailan... more A recent reassessment of the timing of social and technological developments in northeast Thailand has revealed that these changes occurred rapidly and relatively late in the region. In particular, major social changes including a shift to a hierarchical mode of social organisation and the putative development of social inequality, have been identified within the Iron Age (500 BCE – 500 CE). Multidisciplinary research conducted elsewhere in the world has demonstrated the negative health effects resulting from the development of social inequality, but the impact that this change had on the health of prehistoric people of northeast Thailand is as yet poorly understood. This paper outlines the preliminary findings of PhD research being conducted on the human skeletal remains from Non Ban Jak in northeast Thailand. This research is part of a larger interdisciplinary study on this late Iron Age site and aims to identify and qualify social change and its effects on physiological stress and health from a biocultural theoretical perspective. Physiological stress is investigated through analyses of long bone length and dental enamel defects in a sample of over 160 adult and subadults. Geographic Information
System analyses of the spatial patterning of burials and archaeological analyses of mortuary goods are used to identify different social groups within the site. It is expected that there will be variation in stress levels and the material culture associated with each group, indicating social inequality. The prestige value of the mortuary goods will relate to with skeletal stress, though this relationship is predicted to fluctuate over time. These fluctuations may represent the shifting social status of each group within a flexible form of hierarchy.

A Biosocial Study of Late Iron Age Social Organisation and its Influence on Health at Non Ban Jak, Northeast Thailand.

Podium presentation given at the 2nd SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference of Southeast Asian Archaeology. Bangkok, Thailand, 2016

Prehistoric social organisation in northeast Thailand has long been debated by archaeologists, wi... more Prehistoric social organisation in northeast Thailand has long been debated by archaeologists, with hierarchy and/or heterarchy being the organisational models favoured for the area. This debate has been based on the analysis of grave ‘wealth’, spatial distribution of burials, and mortuary practices, as these aspects of mortuary ritual are believed to reflect social status. Amounts of physical labour and access to food and healthcare can also vary according to social standing and low social status has been associated with poor health. Biological health can be assessed using human skeletal remains. We present a proposal for an interdisciplinary investigation of social organisation and its influences on health at Non Ban Jak in northeast Thailand. This site dates to the late Iron Age (300 – 500AD) and features a well-preserved skeletal sample numbering ~142 individuals. Non Ban Jak therefore provides an excellent opportunity to observe changes in social organisation and health immediately prior to the formation of complex polities in Southeast Asia. We aim to investigate status variation within the site from a biosocial perspective through an analysis of health (as represented by growth and developmental defects of dental enamel), demography, temporal and spatial patterning in burials, mortuary practices and grave goods. Proposed methods for these analyses will be outlined. It is hypothesised that different status groups will be recognised at the site, and that the status differences observed at the site will reflect a flexible yet hierarchical form of social organisation. It is expected that higher status will buffer against the deterioration of biological health.