Human Foodways, Metallurgy, and Landscape Modification of Iron Age Central Thailand

Abstract

The relationship between a population and its immediate natural landscape often shapes the course of social development and cultural practice. The increasing abundance of smelting byproduct in archaeological sites suggests that community-based metallurgical activities, established at least half a millennium earlier, intensified during the Iron Age (ca. 500 B.C.-A.D. 500) in central Thailand. Likely consequences of such a change would include higher demand for firewood, resulting in small-scale forest clearing, with subsequent altered access to wild terrestrial fauna. Tooth enamel from 13 human individuals dated to the Iron Age period of Promtin Tai were sampled for stable carbon isotope analysis to explore how people responded to anthropogenic landscape modification as reflected in the dietary regime. The data revealed that a C 3 -based dietary pattern was maintained throughout the Promtin Tai occupation. A slight enrichment of d 13 C values from the Earlier to Later Iron Age may be attributable to increasing consumption of freshwater fauna, domestic fauna, resources collected from or fed on more opened fields, or any combination of these. A wider diversity of food items brought in via trade networks could also have contributed to the flexibility of foodways. The wealth of natural resources in prehistoric central Thailand facilitated the maintenance of a broad-spectrum diet that was also utilized elsewhere in tropical and subtropical Southeast Asia. This study highlights the key role of small sites, often connected by rivers and trade networks, in contributing to the understanding of prehistoric human ecology and cultural complexity in Mainland Southeast Asia.

Living in the dry zone: Stable isotope insights into palaeodiet in ancient Myanmar

“…The similarity between the carbon isotope values of the communities of Nyaung'gan and Oakaie and the individuals from Mayutian in Yunnan, and the other Chinese sites, is equally intriguing and suggests significant differences in subsistence economy between Myanmar and contemporary sites elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Additionally, their values were higher than individuals from Promtin Thai in central Thailand who were arguably consuming a small amount of millet (Liu, 2018).…”

“…To contextualise the human diet, at Oakaie and Nyaung'gan, more broadly, published data from the Southeast Asian sites of Khok Phanom Di (Bentley et al, 2007), Ban Chiang (Bentley et al, 2005), Noen U-Loke (Cox et al, 2011), Ban Lum Khao (Bentley et al, 2009), Ban Non Wat (King et al, 2015) and Promtin Thai (Liu, 2018), and the Chinese sites of Zhongba (Tian et al, 2008), Liangchengzhen (Lanehart et al, 2011) and Mayutian (Zhang et al, 2014) were used for comparative purposes. Data from subadults, adolescents and adults with permanent dentition were included for consideration.…”

“…Importantly, δ 13 C measurements can easily distinguish the use of C 4 crops such as millet from the use of C 3 crops such as rice, and has been used to explore the arrival of agriculture in different parts of Southeast Asia (Krigbaum, 2003, Krigbaum, 2005. This approach has been a research focus among researchers in Mainland Southeast Asia (Bentley et al, 2009, Bentley et al, 2005, Bentley et al, 2007, Cox et al, 2011, King et al, 2014, King et al, 2013, King et al, 2015, Liu, 2018 and China (Lanehart et al, 2011, Tian et al, 2008, Zhang et al, 2014, leading to the development of a solid conceptual and data-rich framework to examine subsistence economies in the region, and a wealth of comparative studies with which to contextualise data from Myanmar. Nevertheless, analyses from the latter region have remained absent thus far, hindering insights into broad dietary changes across major economic and social thresholds.…”

The Elemental Analysis of Glass Beads

“…500 BCE -500 CE) and in 2007 a cemetery was uncovered (PTT-S3) containing 36 individuals in 35 burials (Liu 2012). Although comprehensive radiocarbon dating of the burials has not yet been undertaken, burials can be divided into Earlier and Later Iron Age periods (Liu 2018, see Table S8.1 for details on the beads and their contexts). While beads were common throughout the cemetery matrix only 12 burials, which primarily dated to the Earlier Iron Age period, contained stone and glass beads as grave goods and of these just eight contained glass beads.…”