Emergence and diversification of the neolithic in southern Vietnam: insights from coastal Rach Nui

Oxenham, Marc F.
Piper, Philip J.
Bellwood, Peter
Hoang, Bui Chi
Nguyen, Khanh Trung Kien
Nguyen, Quoc Manh
Campos, Fredeliza
Castillo, Cristina
Wood, Rachel
Sarjeant, Carmen
Amano, Noel
Willis, Anna
Ceron, Jasminda

Open link

Publication date

January 2015

DOI

10.1080/15564894.2014.980473

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

Abstract

We examine the southern Vietnamese site of Rach Nui, dated to between 3390 and 3850 cal BP, in the context of three major aspects of the Neolithic in Mainland Southeast Asia: mound formation and chronology, construction techniques, and subsistence economy. Results indicate that this ca. 75 m in diameter, 5 m high mound, comprising over a dozen phases of earthen platforms, upon which were raised sophisticated wooden structures, was built in <200 years. While consuming domesticated millet, rice, and occasionally dogs and pigs, the main subsistence orientation included managed tubers and fruits and a range of mangrove ecosystem taxa: catfishes, turtles, crocodiles, monitor lizards, macaques and langurs, to name a few. This combined vegeculture...