Zooarchaeology of Ban Chiang and the rise of early farming communities in mainland Southeast Asia

Abstract

Ban Chiang is a prehistoric settlement located in the northeast Khorat Plateau in Thailand. Excavations in 1974–1975 identified a cultural sequence that spanned the arrival of the first rice farmers in ca. 1500 BC until the end of the Iron Age two millennia later. The large faunal sample includes the remains of mammals, fish, birds, and shellfish that illuminate aspects of the economy and environment. Domestic cattle, water buffaloes, pigs, and dogs, all domesticated in southern China, were introduced and maintained in an economy that incorporated hunting, fishing and collecting shellfish. The jungle fowl, Gallus gallus, was probably locally domesticated. When considered in its broader context, the faunal remains from Neolithic coastal Vietnamese and Thai sites present a very different picture. In the coastal sites, pigs and dogs dominate, but domestic cattle and chickens are virtually absent. The incoming farmers placed much reliance on marine hunting and fishing. Recent multidisciplinary research has identified an agricultural revolution involving animal traction and plowing in irrigated rice fields that occurred as the monsoon rains faltered from ca. AD 200. This took place in the relatively dry Mun River Valley in the southern part of the Khorat Plateau and rapidly led to the foundation of early states. Ban Chiang, however, enjoys higher natural rainfall and evidence for the agricultural revolution there appears muted or absent.