Skip to main content
Read page text
page 38
RECASTING THAILAND New discoveries at Ban Non Wat Ban Non Wat in central Thailand is one of the world’s richest archaeological digs currently under excavation. Here, site director Prof. Charles Higham reports on the latest discoveries. MAIN IMAGE In a scene of bustling activity at Ban Non Wat, Peter Petchey, at the far bottom left, is preparing to draw the founder’s grave. The archaeologists narrowly missed finding this unique burial during two of the previous seasons of work at the site. l C h a n g i g e Nby i g h a m Hi n g fe at u r . T h o s e i g h a m H: C h a rl e s P H OTO S The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia has had a rocky ride. As early as the 1860s, French archaeologists were publishing bronze artefacts found in their new colonies but it was a century later that excavations at two Thai sites, Non Nok Tha and Ban Chiang, yielded bronze artefacts, crucibles and casting moulds. The excavators claimed on the basis of radiocarbon determinations that these were as early as the 4th millennium BC, claims that stoked a fiery controversy. More conservative opinion pointed out that the dates were derived from charcoal found in insecure contexts; and as further excavations have been undertaken, so the early claims have subsided. Dating Ban Non Wat To document and understand the Bronze Age, however, it is vital to pursue two aims. The first is to excavate a site that covers the entire prehistoric sequence from the initial settlement by Neolithic rice farmers to the end of the Iron Age. The second is to secure sufficient radiocarbon determinations to date each cultural phase. For the past seven years, we have attempted to achieve these at the site of Ban Non Wat in the upper Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand. Ban Non Wat is one of numerous Iron Age sites, clearly seen from the air by its distinctive moats and banks. When we began our first season, we anticipated uncovering Iron Age occupation but, to our surprise, we proceeded down through Bronze Age remains to the Neolithic below. Here lay our opportunity. Almost 24 months of excavations have now uncovered 635 human burials, about 20,000 artefacts, and 75 radiocarbon determinations. Since the burials are superimposed over time, we have 12 clear mortuary and occupation phases. Our radiocarbon dates incorporate many based on the freshwater bivalve shells placed as offerings with the dead. With no inbuilt age and a definite association, we can confidently turn to the Oxford laboratory, where my son Thomas has applied the latest Bayesian statistical analysis and established the site’s chronology. 38 C U R R E N TW O R L DA R C H A E O L O G Y . Issue 31
page 39
THAILAND Charting the site’s changes The initial Neolithic occupation took place in about 1650 BC (all dates are calibrated). An early series of Neolithic graves lasted for about two generations, from 1460-1410 BC. This was followed by a second Neolithic phase that lasted from about 1250 to 1050 BC, to be followed by Bronze Age occupation and the establishment of a cemetery in, or about, 1000 BC. The initial Bronze Age burial phase was very brief, but all five graves contained a bronze axe. The second phase followed immediately, and lasted for up to six generations. Individuals were accompanied by princely offerings including bronze axes, bells, chisels and anklets. Bronze Age phase 3 lasted for perhaps only one generation in the late 10th century BC, and men, women, infants and children were still very wealthy and associated with bronzes. Bronze Age phase 4 lasted from 800 to 700 BC, and now the dead were uniformly poor, with virtually no bronzes. The final Bronze Age phase, still relatively poor in terms of bronze offerings, merged with the early Iron Age in about 420 BC. BELOW Charles Higham uncovers a large group of clay moulds that lay over thefounder’s right knee. www.world-archaeology.com ABOVE The first hint of the founder‘s grave was a pair of clay moulds for casting bronze bangles. The foot bones to the right belong to a person interred directly over the bronze founder. Scale 10cm. Thus an initial starburst of wealth and show in the earliest Bronze Age was followed by a sharp decline in mortuary display and the provision of bronze grave goods. We know from the recovery of hundreds of fragments of clay casting moulds, crucibles and furnaces that bronzes were being cast at Ban Non Wat, but until we uncovered burial 549, we did not know anything about the bronze founders themselves. Now we have an unparalleled insight into a foundry man who lived during the third phase of the Bronze Age, in the 8th century BC. Bural 549: grave of the foundry man One of the advantages of directing a large excavation, involving 60 or 70 people, is that I can keep a close watch on what is happening as I move round the various units, each under the supervision of a graduate student. My  39

Page Text

View plaintext

RECASTING THAILAND New discoveries at Ban Non Wat Ban Non Wat in central Thailand is one of the world’s richest archaeological digs currently under excavation. Here, site director Prof. Charles Higham reports on the latest discoveries.

MAIN IMAGE In a scene of bustling activity at Ban Non Wat, Peter Petchey, at the far bottom left, is preparing to draw the founder’s grave. The archaeologists narrowly missed finding this unique burial during two of the previous seasons of work at the site.

l C h a n g i g e

Nby i g h a m

Hi n g fe at u r

. T h o s e i g h a m

H: C h a rl e s

P H OTO S

The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia has had a rocky ride. As early as the 1860s, French archaeologists were publishing bronze artefacts found in their new colonies but it was a century later that excavations at two Thai sites, Non Nok Tha and Ban Chiang, yielded bronze artefacts, crucibles and casting moulds. The excavators claimed on the basis of radiocarbon determinations that these were as early as the 4th millennium BC, claims that stoked a fiery controversy. More conservative opinion pointed out that the dates were derived from charcoal found in insecure contexts; and as further excavations have been undertaken, so the early claims have subsided.

Dating Ban Non Wat To document and understand the Bronze Age, however, it is vital to pursue two aims. The first is to excavate a site that covers the entire prehistoric sequence from the initial settlement by Neolithic rice farmers to the end of the Iron Age. The second is to secure sufficient radiocarbon determinations to date each cultural phase. For the past seven years, we have attempted to achieve these at the site of Ban Non Wat in the upper Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand.

Ban Non Wat is one of numerous Iron Age sites, clearly seen from the air by its distinctive moats and banks. When we began our first season, we anticipated uncovering Iron Age occupation but, to our surprise, we proceeded down through Bronze Age remains to the Neolithic below. Here lay our opportunity. Almost 24 months of excavations have now uncovered 635 human burials, about 20,000 artefacts, and 75 radiocarbon determinations. Since the burials are superimposed over time, we have 12 clear mortuary and occupation phases. Our radiocarbon dates incorporate many based on the freshwater bivalve shells placed as offerings with the dead. With no inbuilt age and a definite association, we can confidently turn to the Oxford laboratory, where my son Thomas has applied the latest Bayesian statistical analysis and established the site’s chronology.

38

C U R R E N TW O R L DA R C H A E O L O G Y . Issue 31

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content