This paper presents the results of a recent pilot project aimed at obtaining optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates from a group of ancient irrigation dams in central India. The dams are all situated within an area of 750 km2 around the wellknown Buddhist site of Sanchi, the latter established in c. third century B.C. and having a continuous constructional sequence up to the twelfth century A.D. They were documented during earlier seasons of the Sanchi Survey, initiated in 1998 in order to relate the site to its wider archaeological landscape. The pilot project builds upon earlier hypotheses regarding the chronology and function of the Sanchi dams and their relationship to religious and political history in Central India. The principal suggestion is that the earliest phase of dam construction coincided with the rise of urbanization and the establishment of Buddhism in central India between c. third and second centuries B.C.; and that they were connected with wet-rice cultivation as opposed to wheat, the main agricultural staple today. Similarities with intersite patterns in Sri Lanka, where monastic landlordism is attested from c. second century B.C. onward, have also led to the working hypothesis that the Sanchi dams were central to the development of exchange systems between Buddhist monks and local agricultural communities. The pilot project focused on two out of a total of 16 dam sites in the Sanchi area and involved scraping back dam sections created by modern road cuttings. This cast new light on aspects of dam construction and allowed for the collection of sediments and ceramics for OSL dating. The results confirmed the suitability of local sediments to OSL dating methods, as well as affirming our working hypothesis that the dams were constructed—along with the earliest Buddhist monuments in Central India—in the late centuries B.C. Sediment samples were also collected from cores hand drilled in the dried-up reservoir beds, for supplementary OSL dating and pollen analysis, which shed useful insights into land use.

The West Mouth of Niah Cave, Sarawak, contains one of the largest series of stratified prehistoric burials in Southeast Asia. Initial classification grouped up to 39 burials as 'Mesolithic' or pre-Neolithic (B. Harrisson 1967), including 'flexed', 'seated' and 'mutilation' burials, and subsequent radiocarbon dates on human bone produced a date range for these burials of 15,121-5659 cal. BC (Brooks et al. 1977;T. Harrisson 1975). However, due to the technical infancy in dating bone samples at that time, these dates are now generally discredited (Spriggs 1989). In light of renewed investigation of cave stratigraphy and new radiocarbon dates, this paper reviews the classification and date range of early Holocene burials at Niah Cave. The spatial and temporal patterning in burial practice at the site is discussed and compared to the regional data. It is proposed that the commencement of discrete burial in the early Holocene forms a horizon across the Indo-Malay Archipelago which reflects a broad cultural shift in the perception of dead and cultural attitudes to their appropriate treatment, one result of which was the creation of tangible ancestral identities. Early Holocene burial practice was varied both at a local and regional level, including primary as well as secondary burial. One widespread element is the use of fire, either represented as fully cremated remains or physically present within the grave structure itself.

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The Niah Caves in Sarawak, Borneo, have captured evidence for people and economies of 8000 and 4000 years ago. Although not continuous on this site, these open two windows on to life at the cultural turning point, broadly equivalent to the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic. They have much in common, inferring that the occupants, perhaps belonging to an older maritime dispersal, had a choosy appetite for the Neolithic package.

Excavations between 1954 and 1967 in the West Mouth, Niah Cave (Sarawak) uncovered the largest Neolithic cemetery in South-east Asia with over 150 burials. Subsequent work at the site in the 1970s and most recently by the Niah Caves Project (2000–2004) brought the total to 170, comprising 89 primary burials and 79 secondary burials, and two ‘multiple’ burials. The size of cemetery and the scale of the archaeological data are unprecedented in South-east Asian Neolithic archaeology and offer a unique opportunity to investigate the cemetery's origins, development, and history in detail. Analysis of the demographic structure of discrete spatial burial groups within the cemetery and their short term burial sequences are combined to interpret the history of changing burial practice in terms of different social/settlement groups using the cave as a communal place of burial. A new suite of radiocarbon dates are used to date the West Mouth Neolithic cemetery to between 1500 and 200bc. Six phases of burial are defined and the associated transitions of ritual practices are discussed. In particular, a transition from primary to secondary burial occurred aroundc.1000bc, which subsequently intensified into the practice of cremation. This process was likely associated/fuelled by an intensification of economic activity to support more elaborate secondary burial funerals. Two further cycles of primary and secondary burial followed, before the main cemetery ceasedc.200bc. A Post-Neolithic phase of possibly 14 burials (five primary flexed burials and nine secondary burials) is proposed to follow, which while continuing aspects of Neolithic mortuary behaviour, is considered on isotopic data to represent a group of hunter-gatherers living in a closed-canopy environment