The Mun Valley and Central Thailand in prehistory: integrating two cultural sequences

Abstract

This paper compares the later prehistory in two regions of Thailand. The Mun Valley lies on the eastern side of the Phetchabun Range, the Lopburi Region (LR) to the west. They are linked by a major pass. While the Lopburi area is rich in copper ore, the Mun Valley has none. Quality salt is abundantly available in the Mun Valley but less so in the LR. This study explores the inter-relationships between the areas over a period of 2300 years which sharpens our understanding of both, and presents explanations and possibilities in the context of cultural transmission theories. Neolithic farmers with ultimate origins in China, arrived in the first half of the second millennium BC. Widespread exchange in prestige goods was a factor in the adoption of copper-base metallurgy in the late 11th century BC, when the LR became a producer, the Mun Valley an importer. With the Iron Age, (from about 500 BC), sites grew in size. During the course of this period, gold, silver, agate, carnelian and glass ornaments were ritually placed with dead elites. It is in these powerful and wealthy Iron Age communities that we can identify the early transition into states with population growth, agricultural intensification, conflict and increased production and competition over salt and metal for exchange.

The Prehistoric House: A Missing Factor in Southeast Asia

“…Disturbed clay floors in proximity to human graves dating to the Iron Age have been identified at the nearby sites of Ban Non Wat and Noen U-Loke (Higham and Kijngam 2012). The same pattern is also seen in Central Thailand during the Iron Age (Higham and Rispoli 2014 …”

Hunter-gatherer specialization in the late Neolithic of southern Vietnam – The case of Rach Nui

“…2250 BCE, based on a diffusion process modelled from available rice archaeobotanical evidence [330 sites across Asia] (Silva et al, 2015). Indeed, there is a wealth of support for the role of the Neolithic demographic transition (NDT) and expansion of farming societies into MSEA (Bellwood and Oxenham, 2008; see also Higham and Rispoli, 2014 ;Rispoli, 2007).…”

Debating a great site: Ban Non Wat and the wider prehistory of Southeast Asia

“…Location is key. Ban Non Wat commands a pass over the Petchabun Range that leads on to the Central Thai copper mines (Higham & Rispoli 2014). In an easterly direction lie the Mekong and the Sepon copper deposits.…”