Archaeology of Southeast Asia: Cultural Perspective (original) (raw)
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Emergence and Diversification of the Neolithic in Coastal Southern Vietnam
We examine the southern Vietnamese site of Rach Nui, dated to between 3390 and 3850 cal BP, in the context of three major aspects of the Neolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia: mound formation and chronology, construction techniques, and subsistence economy. Results indicate that this ca. 75 m in diameter, 5 m high mound, comprising over a dozen phases of earthen platforms, upon which were raised sophisticated wooden structures, was built in <200 years. While consuming domesticated millet, rice, and occasionally dogs and pigs, the main subsistence orientation included managed tubers and fruits and a range of mangrove ecosystem taxa: catfishes, turtles, crocodiles, monitor lizards, macaques and langurs, to name a few. This combined vegeculture-
Emergence and Diversification of the Neolithic in Southern Vietnam: Insights From Coastal Rach Nui
2015
We examine the southern Vietnamese site of Rach Nui, dated to between 3390 and 3850 cal BP, in the context of threemajor aspects of the Neolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia: mound formation and chronology, construction techniques, and subsistence economy. Results indicate that this ca. 75 m in diameter, 5 m high mound, comprising over a dozen phases of earthen platforms, upon which were raised sophisticated wooden structures, was built in <200 years. While consuming domesticated millet, rice, and occasionally dogs and pigs, the main subsistence orientation included managed tubers and fruits and a range of mangrove ecosystem taxa: catfishes, turtles, crocodiles, monitor lizards, macaques and langurs, to name a few. This combined vegeculture foraging lifeway in a mangrove forested environment, likely in the context of a tradable goods extractive industry, adds to a growing picture of significant diversity, and sophisticated construction skills in the Southeast Asian Neolithic.
2022 Before Rice and the First Rice: Archaeobotanical Study in Ha Long Bay, Northern Vietnam
Frontiers in Earth Science , 2022
Mainland Southeast Asia experienced a long, sustained period of foraging economy before rice and millet farming spread into this area prior to 4,000 years BP. Although hundreds of individuals from dense cemeteries are found in several hunter-gatherer sites in Guangxi, Southern China, and Northern Vietnam, dating from the early to middle Holocene (ca. 9,000-4,500 years BP), so far, little has been known about food sources in these prefarming contexts. In particular, plant food resources have been unclear, although they likely were crucial to supporting rather large populations of hunter-gatherers in this region. To investigate this issue, micro plant remains, including starches and phytoliths, were recovered from stone tools excavated at the Cai Beo site in Ha Long Bay of coastal Northeastern Vietnam, and those findings revealed new understanding of the ancient diet. Examinations of those residues indicated that the hunter-gatherers at Cai Beo as early as 7,000-6,000 years BP exploited a broad spectrum of plants, such as taros, yams, acorns, palms, and more. This study exemplifies how maritime hunter-gatherers interfaced with the local plants and generated population growth from about 7,000 to 4,500 years BP. The results help us to conceptualize the early exploitation, management, and potential cultivation of subtropical and tropical plants over the broad geography of Asia and the Pacific before the arrival of rice and millet farming. In particular, the result validates the significance of roots and tubers in the ancient subsistence economy of Southeast Asia. Moreover, from the archaeological context of 4,500 to 4,000 years BP, the rice discovered in this study represents one of the earliest known in Mainland Southeast Asia.
The Paleolithic Site of Sao Din (Northern Thailand)
human dispersal over time and space is still debated and recent discoveries and studies in india or china demonstrate a much older presence of human during the early Pleistocene in asia according to stone tools evidence. information concerning the expansion of human groups into continental Southeast asia is generally lacking-although fossil evidence demonstrating an early human presence in insular Southeast asia does exist, i.e. indonesia. a recent survey in northern Thailand have produced a numerous series of stone tools which present an ideal opportunity for reconsidering the archaeological record of the early Pleistocene in this region. we provide a preliminary description of the geomorphological context and a brief technological analysis of the stone tools from the site of Sao Din (nan province). Technologically, this lithic assemblage presents the most similarities with southern chinese assemblages dated between 1 Ma and 0.5 Ma.
LATE NEOLITHIC/EARLY METAL AGE SITES IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS (TAY NGUYEN) OF VIETNAM
To date, Vietnamese archaeologists have identified 60 archaeological sites in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, an area known as Tay Nguyen. These prehistoric sites date from the Late Neolithic through to the Early Metal Period. This paper describes some of the cultural materials recovered during recent excavations of several Tay Nguyen sites, and the insights they provide into the interaction that took place in this strategic part of Vietnam in the prehistoric period.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, 2008
Tràng An is a Vietnamese government supported cultural and ecological park development covering 2,500 hectares that is centred on an isolated massif on the southern edge of the Song Hong delta in Ninh Bình Province, north Vietnam (Fig. 1). The archaeological investigation of Tràng An is being led jointly by the Xuan Truong Construction Corporation and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, under the direction of the lead author. The Corporation is creating an ecologically sensitive development – the ‘Tràng An Tourism Resort’ – within this karstic landscape, which is also the subject of a planned application to UNESCO for World Heritage Site status. International involvement in this work has been at the behest of Nguyêń Van Truong, the General Director of Xuan Truong and at the invitation of the Ninh Bình People's Committee. The research itself is carried out under the guidance of Nguyêń Van Son, the Tràng An Tourism Resort Project Manager. T...