Climate Change and the Middle Holocene "missing millennia" in the Southeast Asian Archaeological Record

Summary

Archaeological research in mainland Southeast Asia is a relatively recent endeavor, but as the region’s culture history has become more fully known, a gap in evidence called the "missing millennia" has emerged. The gap falls during the middle Holocene c. 6000-4000 BP when few sites have dated deposits. Yet from evidence dating before and after those millennia, important changes must have occurred, including changes in settlement systems, lithics and ceramic technologies, the appearance of cereal agriculture, and new burial practices. Recent palaeoclimate research under the auspices of the Middle Mekong Archaeological Project in northern Laos is providing possible clues related to the gap in archaeological evidence. Four new speleothem records document an abrupt trend of weakened monsoons beginning at approximately 5-4.5- ka initiating the onset of a mega-drought that peaked at approximately. 4.0 ka. The drought climax near the "4.2 ka event" is when other parts of Eurasia and Africa experienced sharp climate shifts and associated human dislocations and societal adjustments. This paper reviews the emerging evidence and proposes an initial interpretation of societal responses to this significant period of climate change

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20176