Reduction Sequences During the Hoabinhian Technocomplex in Cambodia and Thailand: A New Knapping Strategy in Southeast Asia from the Terminal Upper Pleistocene to mid Holocene

Abstract

The Hoabinhian is a cultural marker of the late Paleolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia. And it is one of the most debated topics in prehistoric research in Southeast Asia. However, today there is a lack of reliable information on the diversity of production strategies and tool structures in the Hoabinhian, due to poor scientific methods and few well-excavated sites in the twentieth century. Over the last two decades, a technological approach that aims to identify reduction sequences (chaîne opératoires) has been applied to Hoabinhian lithic assemblages. Results have been generated that broaden our understanding of the technological characteristics and nature of the Hoabinhian industry. In this study, we present two Hoabinhian case studies from Cambodia (Laang Spean Cave) and Thailand (Moh Khiew Cave) to reveal the reduction sequences and end products of the Hoabinhian industry. We also compare and discuss the unity and variability between the two sites.

After the Revolution: A Review of 3D Modelling as a Tool for Stone Artefact Analysis

“…In spite of this, it has not been a global revolution. North, West, and Central Africa, Central, South and South-East Asia, Australia, the Pacific and South America combined make up less than a fifth of all studies (see Cardillo et al 2021;Forestier et al 2022bForestier et al , 2022aJennings and Weisler 2020;Maloney and O'Connor 2014;Pérez-Balarezo et al 2022;Prentiss et al 2015;Weisler et al 2013 for exceptions). The impact of differential access to resources between archaeologists working in the developed and developing world is well known (Connah 2013;Mapunda and Lane 2004;Marwick, Pham and Ko 2020;Shepherd 2002).…”

Zooarchaeological investigation of the Hoabinhian exploitation of reptiles and amphibians in Thailand and Cambodia with a focus on the Yellow-headed Tortoise (Indotestudo elongata(Blyth, 1854))

“…Currently, the earliest Hoabinhian deposits is considered to be the Xiaodong Rock shelter in Southwest China, dating back to about 43,000 BP (Ji et al, 2016).Similarly, the site of Huai Hin in Northwest Thailand, dated to approximately 3700 BP, is considered the last occurrence with a lithic production associated with ceramic sherds (Forestier et al, 2013;Zeitoun et al, 2008). Over a hundred Hoabinhian sites have been reported in Southeast Asia (Chung, 2008;Forestier et al, 2017;Moser, 2001;White, 2011;Zeitoun et al, 2008), raising questions about the variability of Hoabinhian lithic assemblages, including unexpected operational sequences on pebble matrix (Forestier et al, 2023(Forestier et al, , 2022. Nonetheless, despite these findings, the Hoabinhian people remain poorly understood from both cultural and material perspectives.…”

Zooarchaeological investigation of the Hoabinhian exploitation of reptiles and amphibians in Thailand and Cambodia with a focus on the Yellow-headed Tortoise (Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854))

“…Similarly, the site of Huai Hin in Northwest Thailand, dated to approximately 3700 BP, is considered the last occurrence with a lithic production associated with ceramic sherds (Zeitoun et al, 2008;Forestier et al, 2013). Over a hundred Hoabinhian sites have been reported in Southeast Asia (Moser, 2001;Chung, 2008;Zeitoun et al, 2008;White, 2011;Forestier et al, 2017), raising questions about the variability of Hoabinhian lithic assemblages, including unexpected operational sequences on pebble matrix (Forestier et al, 2022(Forestier et al, , 2023. Nonetheless, despite these findings, the Hoabinhian people remain poorly understood from both cultural and material perspectives.…”