Environmental and Social Change in Northeast Thailand during the Iron Age

Abstract

The Iron Age of Mainland Southeast Asia began in the fifth century bc and lasted for about a millennium. In coastal regions, the development of trade along the Maritime Silk Road led to the growth of port cities. In the interior, a fall in monsoon rains particularly affected the Mun River valley. This coincided with the construction of moats/reservoirs round Iron Age settlements from which water was channelled into wet rice fields, the production of iron ploughshares and sickles, population growth, burgeoning exchange and increased conflict. We explore the social impact of this agricultural revolution through applying statistical analyses to mortuary samples dating before and after the development of wet rice farming. These suggest that there was a swift formation of social elites represented by the wealth of mortuary offerings, followed by a decline. Two associated changes are identified. The first involved burying the dead in residential houses; the second considers the impact of an increasingly aquatic environment on health by examining demographic trends involving a doubling of infant mortality that concentrated on neonates. A comparison between this sequence and that seen in coastal ports suggests two interconnected instances of rapid pathways to social change responding to different social and environmental stressors.

Building from the Ground Up: The Archaeology of Residential Spaces and Communities in Southeast Asia

“…Higham argues that the appearance of residential burials in this context has significant implications for sociopolitical organization during this period. In his model, a shift to residential burials coincided with a period of intensified rice agriculture, the construction of moats around many sites in northeast Thailand, the appearance of exotic artifacts from South Asia, and an increase in mortuary wealth signifying the emergence of entrenched hierarchical elites (Higham 2015a(Higham , 2017bHigham et al 2019). Burials in dwellings "reinforce inherited rights to property, wealth and status by the members of the kin group in question" (Higham 2015a, p. 394).…”

“…Evidence for the presence of entrenched elites at Non Ban Jak and other sites in northeast Thailand is not clear. A careful reading of the mortuary data from three nearby sites, Ban Non Wat, Noen U-Loke, and Non Ban Jak, highlights this complexity (Higham et al 2019). During the first part of the Iron Age (Iron Age 1 or 420-100 BC, see Higham 2011b for discussion of Iron Age phasing and mortuary sequence), there is no clear differentiation in status within the mortuary data at Ban Non Wat, and the dead appear to be buried in a cemetery.…”

“…Higham and others have argued that these moats were controlled by elites within the communities (Higham 2014b(Higham , 2015a(Higham , 2016; O'Reilly 2014). However, the mortuary wealth at Noen U-Loke during Iron Age 3 was not sustained, and in Iron Age 4 (AD 400-600), burials at Non Ban Jak were placed in residential structures and mortuary wealth fell off (Higham et al 2019). Scholars have observed that residential burial often marked territoriality (Parker Pearson 1999), but it was frequently associated with corporate groups rather than marking elites in a hierarchy (Adams and King 2010, p. 4 see also other papers in this volume).…”

“…Sites like Khok Phanom Di or Ban Non Wat, with long-term habitation and extensive mortuary data, have allowed for the identification of burial clusters, which are frequently associated with particular family or kin groups (Higham 1989(Higham , 2011b. The emphasis in these studies has been on using burial placement, mortuary data, and grave goods to identify changing status and possible elite or high-status kinship groups within the communities (Higham 1989(Higham , 2011aHigham et al 2019). At Khok Phanom Di, a series of inherited cranial abnormalities and tooth ablations allowed for the creation of a hypothesized genealogy that spanned several mortuary phases (Higham 1989).…”

Kinship and migration in prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia: An overview of isotopic evidence

“…The Iron Age, or protohistoric period (c. 500 BC -AD 500) is associated with evidence for warfare, intensified maritime exchange with East and South Asia via incipient littoral urban settlements, and the indigenous origins of state societies (Bellina et al 2018;Stark 2006a;Kim 2013Kim , 2015, coeval with the appearance of iron tools and weapons, and glass. Ever more closely interconnected exchange systems led to exotic items and commodities dispersing far inland along riverine routes (Higham 2014:266-269;Higham et al 2019b;O'Reilly 2014;Pryce & Bellina 2018 ARA;Stark 2006a).…”