TY - JOUR
T1 - Emergence and Diversification of the Neolithic in Southern Vietnam
T2 - Insights From Coastal Rach Nui
AU - Oxenham, Marc F.
AU - Piper, Philip J.
AU - Bellwood, Peter
AU - Bui, Chi Hoang
AU - Nguyen, Khanh Trung Kien
AU - Nguyen, Quoc Manh
AU - Campos, Fredeliza
AU - Castillo, Cristina
AU - Wood, Rachel
AU - Sarjeant, Carmen
AU - Amano, Noel
AU - Willis, Anna
AU - Ceron, Jasminda
N1 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Enormous thanks to the archaeologists and support team (Dang Ngoc Kinh, Le Hoang Phong, Nguyen Yen Hoang Linh, Bui Xuan Long, Van Ngoc Bich, and Do Thi Lan) involved in the Rach Nui project, including all local villagers. Further, the help and assistance of the Long An Provincial Museum was crucial to the success of this project: Director Bui Phat Diem and Deputy Director Vuong Thu Hong.
FUNDING
This research was supported by the Australian Research Council, grants DP1101010
97, FT 120100299, and FT100100527.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - We examine the southern Vietnamese site of Rach Nui, dated to between 3390 and 3850 cal BP, in the context of three major aspects of the Neolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia: mound formation and chronology, construction techniques, and subsistence economy. Results indicate that this ca. 75 m in diameter, 5 m high mound, comprising over a dozen phases of earthen platforms, upon which were raised sophisticated wooden structures, was built in <200 years. While consuming domesticated millet, rice, and occasionally dogs and pigs, the main subsistence orientation included managed tubers and fruits and a range of mangrove ecosystem taxa: catfishes, turtles, crocodiles, monitor lizards, macaques and langurs, to name a few. This combined vegeculture-foraging lifeway in a mangrove forested environment, likely in the context of a tradable goods extractive industry, adds to a growing picture of significant diversity, and sophisticated construction skills in the Southeast Asian Neolithic.
AB - We examine the southern Vietnamese site of Rach Nui, dated to between 3390 and 3850 cal BP, in the context of three major aspects of the Neolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia: mound formation and chronology, construction techniques, and subsistence economy. Results indicate that this ca. 75 m in diameter, 5 m high mound, comprising over a dozen phases of earthen platforms, upon which were raised sophisticated wooden structures, was built in <200 years. While consuming domesticated millet, rice, and occasionally dogs and pigs, the main subsistence orientation included managed tubers and fruits and a range of mangrove ecosystem taxa: catfishes, turtles, crocodiles, monitor lizards, macaques and langurs, to name a few. This combined vegeculture-foraging lifeway in a mangrove forested environment, likely in the context of a tradable goods extractive industry, adds to a growing picture of significant diversity, and sophisticated construction skills in the Southeast Asian Neolithic.
KW - building technology
KW - coastal adaptation
KW - mangrove ecosystem
KW - mound construction
KW - vegeculture-foraging subsistence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84945456195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15564894.2014.980473
DO - 10.1080/15564894.2014.980473
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84945456195
VL - 10
SP - 309
EP - 338
JO - Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology
JF - Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology
SN - 1556-4894
IS - 3
ER -
