Bulbeck, David
(2014)
The Chronometric Holocene
Archaeological Record Of The
Southern Thai-malay Peninsula.
International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 10 (1).
pp. 112-162.
ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243
Abstract
A survey of the archaeological literature on the southern Thai-Malay
Peninsula identifies 39 sites associated with chronometric dates suitable
for quantitative analysis covering the Holocene, since 10,000 years ago.
The essential criterion for accepting a date is an expected error of less than
five percent in assessing the probability that the date refers to any of the 20
intervals of 500 years covered by the Holocene. The resulting
documentation would suggest little changed occupancy levels for cave sites
throughout the Holocene apart from a mid-Holocene dip. Higher levels of
site occupancy are documented for the late Holocene than earlier times,
due to the addition of a wide variety of open-air sites to the record.
However, literal reliance on the quantitative results should be tempered
with recognition that archaeological sites and their contents are prone to
destruction with time or, in the case of open-air sites, preservation in
contexts at inaccessible depths beneath the surface. Mid-Holocene and
earlier open-air sites have been recovered only in exceptional
circumstances, and so any review of the Peninsula's Holocene prehistory
should be careful not to interpret absence of evidence as evidence of
absence for early open-air sites. In the case of cave sites, some allowance
can be made for the destruction of suitable dating materials over time. This
allowance would point to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition at around
10,000 years ago, and an interval of elevated sea-levels at around 6,500
years ago, as the peak periods for occupancy rates of cave sites. These
findings are discussed in the context of the probable commencement of the
Neolithic in the Peninsula at around 6,500 years ago, and current issues in
relating the archaeological record to the Austroasiatic (Aslian) and
Austronesian (Malay) languages spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of
the southern Peninsula.
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