Sites, survey, and ceramics: a GIS-based approach to modeling early prehistoric settlement patterns in the Upper Mun River Valley, Northeast Thailand

Summary

Recently, a series of intensive pedestrian surveys were conducted in the Upper Mun River Valley, northeast Thailand to examine prehistoric and historic settlement patterns at an intermediate scale. This paper will focus on the early prehistoric (1650 – 420 BC) finds, in particular evidence of Neolithic (1650 – 1050 BC) occupation. Our results indicate that during the early prehistoric period, site density was unexpectedly high, but settlement integration was weak; site sizes varied greatly and distances between them were uneven. Early prehistoric sites primarily followed a linear pattern, stretching alongside the fossil river network within an elevation range of 141-166 MAMSL. Neolithic sites were located within an even narrower elevation range (151 – 156 MAMSL) and situated on large natural ridges jutting from the low terraces into the alluvial floodplains. How these newly-identified intermediate-scale settlement patterns complement existing excavation and regional aerial surveys within northeast Thailand, will be explored further in this paper.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Recent Advances in the Settlement and Landscape Archaeology of Southwest China and Southeast Asia Part I: The Macro Perspective: Spatial Analysis and Subsistence Systems

Keywords

Spatial Coverage