An investigation into Non Pa Wai, its human-landscape relationships and their regional implications in Central Thailand

Author(s): Chin-hsin Liu

Year: 2025

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Social and Environmental Context for Early Metalworking in Central Thailand" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

<html>

Non Pa Wai (NPW) is one of the three Thailand Archaeometallurgy Project sites in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley in Central Thailand. It yielded evidence for early millet farming (ca. 2300–1800 BCE) and for substantial copper smelting in later sequences (ca. 1200–500 BCE). Here we explore the relationship between the NPW people and their surroundings as the site went through phases of landscape modification to accommodate subsistence and craft production. Tooth enamel and bone samples representing 25 humans from varied mortuary, spatial, and temporal contexts were analyzed for light and strontium stable isotopes. An ecological baseline was reconstructed based on isotopic data from NPW fauna and previously analyzed archaeological fauna from Central Thailand. Results suggest a human diet constituted of tightly clustered mixture of C<sub>3</sub>-C<sub>4</sub> and mid-trophic resources, with no marked variability temporally or by sex. Low strontium variability portrays a community of a majority of local individuals with limited movements. We infer that the NPW people consumed a diet involving locally available and wide-spectrum resources throughout the site occupation. When analyzed on the regional scale, this locale-specific dietary pattern is observed across Central Thailand and adds to the discussion of the inter-community structure of the region.

</html>

Cite this Record

An investigation into Non Pa Wai, its human-landscape relationships and their regional implications in Central Thailand. Chin-hsin Liu. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510125)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

General
Asia: Southeast Asia

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51467