Hunter-gatherer specialization in the late Neolithic of southern Vietnam – The case of Rach Nui

Abstract

Rach Nui is a late Neolithic settlement of hunter-gatherers in southern Vietnam. However, the site also has a series of mortared floors corresponding to a sedentary lifestyle, where the inhabitants continued to live in the same area and repaired or replaced their floors over a period of 150 years. The inhabitants relied on a mixed economy that included domesticated and gathered plants, as well as hunted and managed animals. Although, there is evidence for the consumption of domesticated rice and foxtail millet, the inhabitants were mainly huntergatherers who relied on their surrounding mangrove and swamp forest habitats for most of their food requirements. From the archaeobotanical work done, it appears that the domesticated cereals, rice and foxtail millet, found at the site were imported. On the other hand, sedge nutlets and parenchyma were identified in high frequencies and were probably locally sourced, suggesting that foraging and/or vegeculture played a major role in the economy of Rach Nui.

Genomic history and ecology of the geographic spread of rice

“…19), which may arise from a bottleneck associated with population movements into these new areas. Emergence of upland rice in Laos and Bhutan coincides in time and space with widespread establishment of rainfed rice agriculture in mainland Southeast Asia, ∼4,000 yBP ( 12, 37 ) and dispersal of metallurgy traditions from Bronze Age Yunnan, ∼3,500 yBP southwards to Thailand by ∼3,000 yBP ( 38, 39 ). Subsequent agricultural intensification of rice production took place from ∼2,500 to 1,500 yBP and included evolution of irrigation systems in present-day Thailand ( 40 ).…”

Agricultural systems in Bangladesh: the first archaeobotanical results from Early Historic Wari-Bateshwar and Early Medieval Vikrampura

“…In addition, among the weeds is the rainfed rice weed, Acmella paniculata. This species has proved to be nearly ubiquitous in archaeobotanical samples from Thailand, where it is suggested to be a major weed of rain-fed rice, as well as being used as a green vegetable (Castillo 2011(Castillo , 2013(Castillo , 2017bCastillo et al 2017). By contrast, this species has not yet been encountered in Indian archaeobotany.…”

Three thousand years of farming strategies in central Thailand

“…Acmella paniculata was identified in Bronze Age contexts at Ban Non Wat, where it was considered as evidence for dryland (i.e. rain-fed) rice cultivation (Castillo et al 2018a).…”