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The chronology of the Iron Age 'moats' of Northeast Thailand
Abstract
This paper reports the first chronometric study of the 'moats' of the abundant mounded Iron Age sites of northeast Thailand. Here AMS 14C dates and TL dates are reported which indicate that the moats date from a short period in the Mid to Late Iron Age, before being infilled. The dates also contain preliminary evidence for the chronology of landscape change which is critical to the understanding of the Iron Age occupation of this region.
... The sequential layers in the same occupation period seem to suggest that the use of the area was intensive over a long period of time. Available dates of the end of Iron Age from several sites (McGrath and Boyd, 2001;Higham et al., 2007) provide a reasonably consistent picture of a closure date for the Iron Age. Each site contains its own chronology, and the conformity to a singular event cannot be assumed. ...
... This was, globally, a time of climate change; it was assumed that climate change (possibly with deforestation) caused a socio-environmental crisis. Evidence of alluvial infilling and a significant change of fluvial regime (Boyd et al., 1999;McGrath and Boyd, 2001) were also taken to reflect the crisis. Boyd and Chang (2010) developed an alternative model predicting socioenvironmental changes, suggesting that the Iron Age archaeological record continues a long time period between dynamic social and environmental conditions. ...
... Another two moat features are clearly visible around the Ban Non Wat site ( Figure 3) and may indicate that another water body had been constructed after infilling of the previous channels. According to McGrath and Boyd (2001), the moat bank of Ban Non Wat indicates an older construction phase around 200 BC to 0, from earliest Mid to Late Iron Age. The moats appear to have in-filled rapidly, with channels closest to the mounds being overtopped by rapidly expanding occupation mounds, in some cases shortly after construction. ...
... The sequential layers in the same occupation period seem to suggest that the use of the area was intensive over a long period of time. Available dates of the end of Iron Age from several sites (McGrath and Boyd, 2001;Higham et al., 2007) provide a reasonably consistent picture of a closure date for the Iron Age. Each site contains its own chronology, and the conformity to a singular event cannot be assumed. ...
... This was, globally, a time of climate change; it was assumed that climate change (possibly with deforestation) caused a socio-environmental crisis. Evidence of alluvial infilling and a significant change of fluvial regime (Boyd et al., 1999;McGrath and Boyd, 2001) were also taken to reflect the crisis. Boyd and Chang (2010) developed an alternative model predicting socioenvironmental changes, suggesting that the Iron Age archaeological record continues a long time period between dynamic social and environmental conditions. ...
... Another two moat features are clearly visible around the Ban Non Wat site ( Figure 3) and may indicate that another water body had been constructed after infilling of the previous channels. According to McGrath and Boyd (2001), the moat bank of Ban Non Wat indicates an older construction phase around 200 BC to 0, from earliest Mid to Late Iron Age. The moats appear to have in-filled rapidly, with channels closest to the mounds being overtopped by rapidly expanding occupation mounds, in some cases shortly after construction. ...
Chronological framework can be used to identify the distribution of occupation patterns. This study was based on fourteen radiocarbon samples from the eight excavation pits at Ban Non Wat and Nong Hua Raet archaeological sites. The chronology of the cultural layers was developed using AMS radiocarbon dating to supplement existing data, specifically to examine the dating of the end of the Iron Age occupation. The objective of this study was to continue testing the premise that the end of the Iron Age on the Mun river floodplain in Northeast Thailand that is better defined as either a singular more or less contemporaneous de-population event characterized by widespread abandonment of settlements or a gradual transition from dispersing a rural settlement to more concentrated urban style of settlement. The results support the existing chronological framework of the study area and suggest that the end of the Iron Age in the Mun River valley is better defined as a gradual transition from dispersed rural settlements to a more concentrated urban style settlement. Occupation commenced at the center of the mound of Ban Non Wat during the Neolithic period, and gradually spread radially to the margin by the Iron Age. Occupation at the neighboring site of Nong Hua Raet commenced during the Iron Age period, parallel to that at Ban Non Wat.
... Radiometric dating indicates that bank construction and the active infilling of the sediments within the moats occurred during the later Iron Age occupation [12]. Importantly, the archaeological sites are closely associated with these channels, which, in places, can be found under, and in-filled by, subsequent archaeological sediments; they can be shown to have been present at the time of the site's occupation and later overtopped by expanding occupation material [13]. ...
... Although the site of HI100 is at a different location, its sedimentological characters are similar to those at G104, suggesting a similar origin for the sediments and also suggesting a reasonably uniform nature of the sediments throughout the sites, and, importantly, a common geological provenance. Such findings align well with previous studies and recognized that the sources of the archaeological sediments on the archaeological sites of this region in different localities and contexts within this study area, were influenced by the surrounding floodplain [11][12][13][14][15]. While there is some differentiation between sample types, the overall impression is of a close similarity between channel sediments and the various archaeological sediments (Figure 7). ...
... These observations fit with many years of detailed archaeological excavation, which has revealed complex site sedimentary histories [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Such work has provided evidence for environmental change and the human-environment relationships associated with these that allow us to start developing deeper and more nuanced understandings of socio-environmental processes [14,15]. ...
This research examines the sedimentological evidence of human occupation on different cultural layers at the prehistoric archaeological sites in northeast Thailand. This study focuses on the sedimentological characters of stratigraphic layers identified at the prehistoric occupation sites of Ban Non Wat and Nong Hua Raet, to demonstrate the capacity of such analyses to elucidate the modification of sediments by past anthropogenic activity, and eventually to contribute to an enhanced understanding of the behaviour of ancient people. The primary intention of this paper is, therefore, to point out potential uses of particle analysis in identifying human-landscape interventions, testing whether meaningful differentiation is possible, and if not, whether this may nevertheless be used to understand the sedimentological relationships between different features. The study finds that although there is relatively little differentiation between sediments across the archaeological site, some insight is possible in identifying relationships between the natural sediments of the floodplain, the channels associated with the archaeological sites, and the archaeological sediments themselves. It is, for example, now possible to raise new questions regarding the construction history of the sites, the history of human behaviour at these sites, socio-spatial relationships between paleo-social activity and natural resources, and fine-scale landscape associations between sites.
... Since the encircling earthworks imply a relationship between hydrological conditions and prehistoric settlement, it is reasonable to assume there was a particular association between environment and society in this region. Environmental examination of these sites and their landscapes (Moore 1988a(Moore , b, 1992Boyd et al. 1999a, b;Boyd and McGrath 2001a, b;McGrath and Boyd 2001;Boyd 2004Boyd , 2007Boyd , 2008Boyd and Habberfield-Short 2007;Habberfield-Short and Boyd 2007;McGrath et al. 2008) has progressed to a point where integration with the archaeology is possible (Figure 1). We now discuss the geoarchaeological and archaeological materials and data specific to our case study before returning to the wider implications of the case study in later sections of this paper. ...
... Initial recognition of the sites was founded on the identification of encircling earthworks interpreted as defensive and water-management features. Subsequent geoarchaeological study (Boyd et al. 1999a, b;McGrath and Boyd 2001;McGrath et al. 2008) developed a model of the earliest settlement being along prehistoric rivers. Importantly, these rivers represented a period where the floodplain was better watered than at present, and where the rivers that did flow across the floodplain were more abundant, of a different form, and differently located to those at present. ...
... Higham, 2007;C. F. Higham et al., 2014;King et al., 2014;McGrath & Boyd, 2001). ...
Objective: Scurvy in non-adults was assessed at the Pre-Neolithic site of Con Co Ngua and the Neolithic site of Man Bac in northern Vietnam to investigate nutritional stress during the agricultural transition in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). Materials: 104 human skeletons under the age of 20 years old were assessed. Methods: Lesions were recorded macroscopically and radiographically. Differential diagnosis using prior established paleopathological diagnostic criteria for scurvy was conducted. Results: There was no clear evidence for scurvy at Con Co Ngua and a high burden of scurvy was present at Man Bac (>79% diagnosed with probable scurvy). Scurvy levels were high across all non-adult ages at Man Bac indicating significant burden throughout childhood and adolescence. Conclusions: No scurvy at Con Co Ngua is consistent with widely available food sources at the peak of the Holocene Thermal Maximum. High levels of scurvy at Man Bac corresponds with decreased dietary diversity, high pathogen load, and increased population stress with the transition to agriculture around the time of the 4.2ka desertification event. Significance: This is the first systemic population-level non-adult investigation of specific nutritional disease in MSEA and demonstrates an increase in nutritional stress during the Neolithic transition in northern Vietnam. Limitations: Subperiosteal new bone deposits can be due to normal growth in infants and young children, therefore, identification of scurvy in children under the age of 4 years needs to be considered critically. Suggestions for further research: Further work in diagnosing specific nutritional disease in other non-adult cohorts throughout MSEA is required.
... On listera ici quelques noms : Obluang (Santoni et al., 1986), Spirit Cave (Gorman, 1972), Tham Pha Chan (Bronson & White, 1992), Banyan Caves (Reynolds, 1992), Ong Bah (Sorensen, 1988), Khao Talu et Head Caves (Pookajorn, 1984), Pak Om et Buang Baeb (Srisuchat, 1987), Tham Kao Khi (Reynolds, 1989). Dans le cadre de nos travaux (Zeitoun et al., 2008) Pour l'Âge du Fer (Tankitikon, 1987 ;Prishanchit, et al. 1988 ;Pautreau, 1997 ;Saengjan, et al. 1997 ;Pautreau et al., 2001 ;Mc Grath & Boyd, 2001), pour l'Âge du Bronze (Solheim, 1968 ;Pautreau et al., 1997 ; pour le Néolithique (Sangvichien, 1966 ;Douglas, 1997 ;Pietrusewsky, 1974Pietrusewsky, , 1982Pietrusewsky, et 1997Higham & Kijngan, 1982) et pour le Mésolithique (Sorensen, 1967 ;Jacob, 1969). Ces travaux archéologiques ont parfois été assortis d'études biologiques assez poussées des restes humains, mais n'ont pas été traités de manière intégrée suivant les méthodes actuelles de l'anthropologie funéraire. ...
... Non Ban Jak is located in Amphoe Non Sung of Nakhon Ratchasima Province, northeast Thailand ( Fig. 30.1) . The site was first identified in 1996 through pedestrian survey and has since been excavated and described in detail in a number of publications (Boyd et al. 1999;Boyd and McGrath 2001;McGrath and Boyd 2001;Higham 2011bHigham , 2014aHigham , 2014bHigham and Rispoli 2014;Higham 2015aHigham , 2016 Non Ban Jak is characterized by an eastern and western mound divided by a shallow depression. This is unusual, although also present at the nearby site Non Muang Kao (Fig. 30.1). ...
... The first season of excavations opened an area measuring 8 m 2 on the eastern mound, while the following three seasons have uncovered 35 m by 10 m that began in the low-lying area and climbed onto the western mound. The radiocarbon determinations place moat construction in the fourth to fifth centuries AD terra australis 45 (McGrath and Boyd 2001). Over 40 C 14 dates from rice, human bone and shells from occupation and mortuary contexts indicate that initial settlement took place in the third to fourth centuries AD. ...
Despite the ethnographic importance of the Southeast Asian house and household, an explicitly Southeast Asian “household archaeology” is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, archaeologists in Southeast Asia have undertaken excavations within habitation areas and residential spaces, identifying domestic debris, the partial remains of house structures, and activity areas. As a result, archaeologists of Southeast Asia have addressed many topics of relevance to those who use a household archaeology approach, including the identification and description of houses and household activities; the domestic economy; domestic ritual; diversity and variability both within houses as related to questions of identity, specifically gender and age, and between houses, especially as related to status; and identification of supra-household communities. In this review, I consider how archaeologists have addressed these themes using examples from a diverse set of geographic locations and time periods in mainland and island Southeast Asia. I conclude with suggestions for future research directions to continue building an archaeology of residential spaces and communities in Southeast Asia.
The circular, moated sites of Northeast Thailand are among the most readily distinguished archaeological features in prehistoric Southeast Asia via aerial survey. Seminal work analysing the distribution of these sites was undertaken by Moore, Welch and McNeill in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These studies sought to analyse spatial clustering and the relationship between elevation with site size and density. Recent research by the authors has led to the discovery of further moated sites in Northeast Thailand thereby potentially affecting the conclusions reached by Moore, Welch and McNeill. This paper revisits Moore's original nearest neighbor analysis, including newly identified sites. Moore had concluded there was a random distribution of moated sites in her study area but the updated research clearly demonstrates clustering of moated sites in the Khorat Basin. The elevation at which settlements are located is also revealed to be correlated to the size of the sites and the density of distribution of sites in the study area. The authors argue that these results may be due to the reduced availability of water at higher elevations a finding which correlates strongly with recent evidence which links patterns of precipitation to the distribution and density of sites on the Khorat Plateau. These findings may also have implications for the interpretation of socio-political organisation of Iron Age sites in Northeast Thailand.
The upper Mae Nam (River) Mun Valley of northeast Thailand has been occupied at least since the Bronze Age, but is notable for the rapid expansion of intense town-based Iron Age settlement. The area presently forms the seasonally-arid core of mainland southeast Asia, and is presently dominated by increasingly saline soils, low-productivity rice cultivation and regrowth semi-arid scrub. However, the archaeological evidence for this region indicates a highly-productive natural environment within the last two millennia. Pollen sequences from the infill of Iron Age features provide the first palynological evidence for this part of northeast Thailand, detailing Late Holocene vegetational change. The area around the sites was initially dominated by forest, which then underwent two phases of the replacement by mosaics of grassland, probable rice cultivation, arboriculture and scrub, prior to a subsequent phase of forest and woodland regeneration. Spatial patterning of the study area's palaeovegetation appears to have been complex. While a general progress of landscape change is evident, local compositional differences are also clear. Although the region's archaeological and, especially, geomorphological evidence suggests significant climatic change during this period, the pollen record, as in studies further north in the region for the same period, appears to have been dominated by human influences. Of note are the effects of intensified human settlement and thus increased land and natural resource use. At present this Late Holocene pollen sequence yields no evidence for a direct relationship with climatic change.
During the war and in the immediate post-war period the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force undertook a considerable air survey programme covering Burma, Siam and French Indo-China. In Siam the initial cover was restricted to large-scale (1:15,000 and better) photographs of towns, airfields and communications. Later a more ambitious programme of survey cover (scales 1 : 50,000 and 1 : 25,000 with a few towns and beaches at larger scale) was undertaken, and practically the whole of the country has been covered by air photographs of one scale or another.
It has been my privilege to serve with the R.A.F. in Siam on both ground and flying duties and, more recently, to be in a position to examine most of the photographs taken. A very considerable number of archaeological sites have come to light, many being noted for the first time ; and it is my intention in this initial paper to comment briefly on one particular type of earthwork which appears to have a limited distribution in eastern Siam. The air photographs are reproduced with the sanction of the Air Ministry.
It must be emphasized that although Siam, the meeting place of Indian and Chinese cultures, is rich in archaeological sites very little systematic work has yet been undertaken. On the one side the natural reluctance of the Siamese to disturb ancient sites and, on the other, comparative absence of trained archaeological research workers have been contributory factors. Detailed ground information generally is lacking and it follows that these notes are based on air photographic evidence, in most cases without ground checking, an impropriety of which the writer is only too well aware.
The transition to states in mainland Southeast Asia began during the first centuries AD, and has commonly been ascribed to the adoption of Indian religious and political ideas which arrived on the maritime silk route. Recent research on the Khmer language inscriptions dating from 611 AD has revealed strong local traditions underlying the Indic veneer. In assessing these trends to increased social complexity, however, we have lacked insight into late prehistoric culture.
Samples of dune sand from two previously described sections in the southwestern North Island have been dated by the thermoluminescence method. At the first site, Koputaroa Phase dune sand immediately underlying Aokautere Ash ( = Oruanui Ash 14C dated at c. 22 590 yr B.P.) was dated at 24 200 ± 3700 yr. At the second site, Holocene dune sand was dated at 3000 ± 500 yr. Factors influencing the error limits of the thermoluminescence dates are discussed. The results confirm that coastal dunes were migrating inland during the last stadial of the Otira Glaciation and indicate that the thermoluminescence method could usefully be applied in the dating of upper Quaternary deposits in this region.
The focus of this paper is the conversion of radiocarbon ages to calibrated (cal) ages for the interval 24,000–0 cal BP (Before Present, 0 cal BP = AD 1950), based upon a sample set of dendrochronologically dated tree rings, uranium-thorium dated corals, and varve-counted marine sediment. The 14 C age–cal age information, produced by many laboratories, is converted to Δ 14 C profiles and calibration curves, for the atmosphere as well as the oceans. We discuss offsets in measured l4 C ages and the errors therein, regional 14 C age differences, tree–coral 14 C age comparisons and the time dependence of marine reservoir ages, and evaluate decadal vs . single-year 14 C results. Changes in oceanic deepwater circulation, especially for the 16,000–11,000 cal BP interval, are reflected in the Δ 14 C values of INTCAL98.
This article outlines recent advances in establishing and understanding the prehistoric sequence in mainland Southeast Asia. It is argued that despite its long history of occupation, tropical Southeast Asia was occupied by scattered inland groups and larger, possibly sedentary coastal foragers until exposed to intrusive agricultural societies during the third millennium BC. These communities, brought with them rice cultivation and were responsible for the wide distribution of Austroasiatic languages. Following a relatively brief Neolithic period, small and autonomous communities, particularly in Guangdong and Guangxi, were exposed to exchange contact with the Shang state of the Chinese Central Plains, and this brought exotic jades and bronzes. A local bronze industry was established between 1500 and 1000 BC over much of Southeast Asia, but without any obvious developments until the middle of the first millennium BC. These incorporated iron smelting and forging and exposure in the southern parts of the region to Indian mercantile contact and along the northern margins to the expanding Chinese empire. It is within these regional changes that we can identify trends toward the establishment of states, some of which persisted in an unbroken lineage to the present.