Reinterpreting Archaeobotany in Mainland Southeast Asia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Paradigms Shift: New Interpretations in Mainland Southeast Asian Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the 1990s, two major archaeobotanical studies were undertaken which shape our understanding of subsistence and agriculture in Prehistoric Mainland Southeast Asia. Although most field archaeologists in Southeast Asia do not routinely collect samples for biological studies, archaeobotanical data has grown considerably in the past 10 years with the use of flotation to retrieve macroremains and the collection of phytoliths. We now have more information regarding the diet of prehistoric people and the ecology of the sites and their surroundings. This growing dataset presents different hypotheses about the emergence of cereal agriculture in Southeast Asia, as well as a refined understanding of the ‘beginnings of Indianisation.’ I present data from sites in northeast Thailand which shows a transition in rice farming from dryland towards wetland cultivation. The evidence is that this transition took place in the Iron Age, at a time of an increasingly arid climate, and when a number of broader societal changes become apparent in the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paradigms Shift: New Interpretations in Mainland Southeast Asian Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24366