rice cultivation and the growth of southeast asian civilization

7
Rice cultivation and the growth of Southeast Asian civilization Charles F. W. Higham Recognition that the pattern of life in prehistoric times was strongly influenced by the available sources of food has led to increasing interest in the food-related artefacts found on archaeological sites. This article reviews the role of rice in the early civilizations of Southeast Asia, where prehistoric research is a comparatively recent development. The importance of rice in Southeast Asia in historic times is well documented. In about 250 A.D., a Chinese embassy was sent there, prob- ably to reconnoitre a trade route to India and beyond to the Roman Empire which avoided the overland silk route. Kang Dai and Zhu Ying reported back on a civilization with its own walled cities, kings, a script of Indian origin, and extensive cultivation of rice. They probably described one of the coastal communities located on the flat lands bordering the lower Mekong and Bas- sac rivers [I]. In 1687, Simon de la Loubere, a member of an embassyfrom Louis XIV to the court of King Narai at Ayutthaya, the then capital of Thai- land, noted the fertility of the delta soils and the industry of the local rice far- mers. Archaeological activity under the aegis of the Ecole Fran(;aise d’Extreme Orient, which paid particular attention to the remains of Angkor, disclosed not only one of the great cult centres of early civilizations, but also huge reser- voirs employed to supplement rain water when necessary to sustain the growing rice. This need to control water reflects a basic fact of rice growing on the main- land of Southeast Asia: natural rainfall is insufficient to guarantee a crop away from the low-lying wetlands to which rice is adapted. This problem can be minimized in a number of ingenious C. F. W. Higham, M.A., Ph.D. Was educated at Cambridge Universj~. read- ing archaeology and anthropology with special reference to European prehistory. Since 1968 he has been Professor of Anthropology in the University of Dtago, New Zealand, and has developed an interest in Southeast Asian pre- historv. He has taken oart in the Banvan Vallev Cave ‘and Ban Chianb excavations,’ and was co-director of excavations at Ban Na Di and Khok Phanom Di. Endavow, New Series, Volume 1% No. 2.1989. OWO-X327/89 83.00 + 0.00. @ 1889. Maxwell Pergamon Macmillan pk. Printed in Great Britain. ways, though never wholly solved. One of the most widespread is to build low bunds of soil in order to retain rain- water in the rice field. Rice plants are then transplanted into the prepared ground after the onset of the monsoon rains in May. Another, the direct de- scendent of the ancient Khmer practice, is to build barrages and feed water into the downstream fields when required. In either case, the lowlands of South- east Asia give the impression of one vast ricefield. This clearly central role of rice in underpinning historic societies - today it sustains over a billion people - has naturally drawn prehistorians to in- quire where, when and why this plant was first cultivated. Before proceeding directly to archaeological evidence, it is necessary to consider how we can identify prehis- toric, cultivated rice. The simple answer is that we cannot be sure, on the basis of any single approach, whether a particu- lar community cultivated rice or simply collected it in the wild state. This dis- tinction is not pedantic. In 1961, J. Delvert described how Cambodian communities living in the vicinity of Tonle Sap, the Great Lake which dominates that country’s geography, traditionally collect wild rice by tapping the seed heads into their boats [2]. Wild rice is still collected by some of the more remote forest-dwellers of North- ern Thailand. Whereas it is relatively straightforward to identify prehistoric wheat, barley, or maize as being from a cultivated stand on the basis of shape and size, for rice it is not so simple. Due to the very recent development of pre- historic research in Southeast Asia, we have exceedingly few well-dated prehis- toric samples of rice. Moreover, rice is a genetically volatile plant. It can change its form within only a few generations of being harvested in its wild state, and then revert back again to its original character just as quickly. In order to identify the early presence of cultivated rice, then, we have to follow several lines of inquiry which, taken in conjunction, might provide reasonable prima facie evidence of cul- tivation. Such studies necessarily begin with the identification and excavation of a prehistoric site which yields evidence that rice was part of the diet. The recovery in the same contexts of arte- facts which might have been used in the preparation of soil and the harvesting of the crop is a second source of evidence. Thus, the identification of hoes, grind- ing stones, cooking vessels, and sickles would be relevant. It has long been realized that the analysis of fossil pollen grains recovered from stratified and dated peat deposits can illuminate the impact of people on the prehistoric en- vironment. Over more than 50 years, European specialists have shown that where there is a conjunction of reduced tree pollen, an increase in the pollen of grasses and field weed species, and a rise in the incidence of charcoal, there is a strong likelihood that farming was established. This approach has as yet hardly been used in mainland Southeast Asia, but recent results are beginning to show promise. Thus, instances in a pol- len spectrum where charcoal peaks in association with the presence of plants known to flourish in rice fields would be most intriguing. When such a combina- tion is associated with a rise in the counts of grass pollen of the right size and surface patterning to have been derived from rice, then the evidence is potentially all the more valuable. Pursuit of this inquiry through archaeology must first acknowledge that a major environmental change occur- red, probably during the period when rice began to play a part in the human diet. This involved a rapid rise in the sea level, such that an immense tract of low-lying land was drowned during a period of only about four thousand years. According to the radiocarbon dating of submerged peats and shells, this marine transgression took place be- tween about 8000-4000 years B.C. Geomorphological studies of the sea bed in the area from the Gulf of Siam to the vicinity of Singapore show the for- mer courses of the major rivers, which 82

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Page 1: Rice cultivation and the growth of Southeast Asian civilization

Rice cultivation and the growth of Southeast Asian civilization Charles F. W. Higham

Recognition that the pattern of life in prehistoric times was strongly influenced by the available sources of food has led to increasing interest in the food-related artefacts found on archaeological sites. This article reviews the role of rice in the early civilizations of Southeast Asia, where prehistoric research is a comparatively recent development.

The importance of rice in Southeast Asia in historic times is well documented. In about 250 A.D., a Chinese embassy was sent there, prob- ably to reconnoitre a trade route to India and beyond to the Roman Empire which avoided the overland silk route. Kang Dai and Zhu Ying reported back on a civilization with its own walled cities, kings, a script of Indian origin, and extensive cultivation of rice. They probably described one of the coastal communities located on the flat lands bordering the lower Mekong and Bas- sac rivers [I]. In 1687, Simon de la Loubere, a member of an embassy from Louis XIV to the court of King Narai at Ayutthaya, the then capital of Thai- land, noted the fertility of the delta soils and the industry of the local rice far- mers. Archaeological activity under the aegis of the Ecole Fran(;aise d’Extreme Orient, which paid particular attention to the remains of Angkor, disclosed not only one of the great cult centres of early civilizations, but also huge reser- voirs employed to supplement rain water when necessary to sustain the growing rice.

This need to control water reflects a basic fact of rice growing on the main- land of Southeast Asia: natural rainfall is insufficient to guarantee a crop away from the low-lying wetlands to which rice is adapted. This problem can be minimized in a number of ingenious

C. F. W. Higham, M.A., Ph.D.

Was educated at Cambridge Universj~. read- ing archaeology and anthropology with special reference to European prehistory. Since 1968 he has been Professor of Anthropology in the University of Dtago, New Zealand, and has developed an interest in Southeast Asian pre- historv. He has taken oart in the Banvan Vallev Cave ‘and Ban Chianb excavations,’ and was co-director of excavations at Ban Na Di and Khok Phanom Di.

Endavow, New Series, Volume 1% No. 2.1989. OWO-X327/89 83.00 + 0.00. @ 1889. Maxwell Pergamon Macmillan pk. Printed in Great Britain.

ways, though never wholly solved. One of the most widespread is to build low bunds of soil in order to retain rain- water in the rice field. Rice plants are then transplanted into the prepared ground after the onset of the monsoon rains in May. Another, the direct de- scendent of the ancient Khmer practice, is to build barrages and feed water into the downstream fields when required. In either case, the lowlands of South- east Asia give the impression of one vast ricefield. This clearly central role of rice in underpinning historic societies - today it sustains over a billion people - has naturally drawn prehistorians to in- quire where, when and why this plant was first cultivated.

Before proceeding directly to archaeological evidence, it is necessary to consider how we can identify prehis- toric, cultivated rice. The simple answer is that we cannot be sure, on the basis of any single approach, whether a particu- lar community cultivated rice or simply collected it in the wild state. This dis- tinction is not pedantic. In 1961, J. Delvert described how Cambodian communities living in the vicinity of Tonle Sap, the Great Lake which dominates that country’s geography, traditionally collect wild rice by tapping the seed heads into their boats [2]. Wild rice is still collected by some of the more remote forest-dwellers of North- ern Thailand. Whereas it is relatively straightforward to identify prehistoric wheat, barley, or maize as being from a cultivated stand on the basis of shape and size, for rice it is not so simple. Due to the very recent development of pre- historic research in Southeast Asia, we have exceedingly few well-dated prehis- toric samples of rice. Moreover, rice is a genetically volatile plant. It can change its form within only a few generations of being harvested in its wild state, and then revert back again to its original character just as quickly.

In order to identify the early presence of cultivated rice, then, we have to follow several lines of inquiry which, taken in conjunction, might provide

reasonable prima facie evidence of cul- tivation. Such studies necessarily begin with the identification and excavation of a prehistoric site which yields evidence that rice was part of the diet. The recovery in the same contexts of arte- facts which might have been used in the preparation of soil and the harvesting of the crop is a second source of evidence. Thus, the identification of hoes, grind- ing stones, cooking vessels, and sickles would be relevant. It has long been realized that the analysis of fossil pollen grains recovered from stratified and dated peat deposits can illuminate the impact of people on the prehistoric en- vironment. Over more than 50 years, European specialists have shown that where there is a conjunction of reduced tree pollen, an increase in the pollen of grasses and field weed species, and a rise in the incidence of charcoal, there is a strong likelihood that farming was established. This approach has as yet hardly been used in mainland Southeast Asia, but recent results are beginning to show promise. Thus, instances in a pol- len spectrum where charcoal peaks in association with the presence of plants known to flourish in rice fields would be most intriguing. When such a combina- tion is associated with a rise in the counts of grass pollen of the right size and surface patterning to have been derived from rice, then the evidence is potentially all the more valuable.

Pursuit of this inquiry through archaeology must first acknowledge that a major environmental change occur- red, probably during the period when rice began to play a part in the human diet. This involved a rapid rise in the sea level, such that an immense tract of low-lying land was drowned during a period of only about four thousand years. According to the radiocarbon dating of submerged peats and shells, this marine transgression took place be- tween about 8000-4000 years B.C. Geomorphological studies of the sea bed in the area from the Gulf of Siam to the vicinity of Singapore show the for- mer courses of the major rivers, which

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formerly travelled much further to the sea. One probable effect of this change was to drown prehistoric settlement sites, prejudicing our understanding of the nature of prehistoric communities in Southeast Asia during this critical period.

This reflects the simple fact that the only known prehistoric sites which be- long to the lost four millennia are small, upland rock shelters occupied, it seems briefly, by mobile and small bands of hunter-gatherers. Many such sites were identified and excavated during the 1920s and 1930s by two pioneer French geologists, Madeleine Colani and Henri Mansuy [3]. They found the sites in the rugged, upland limestone terrain which borders the Red River delta on the north and south. It was apparent from the biological remains recovered that shellfish were collected and forest anim- als hunted by people given to fashioning rather simple stone implements. Only relatively late in the sequences do we encounter evidence for pottery making and polishing of hafted stone adze blades. One of the earliest specific quests for evidence bearing on agri- cultural origins took Chester Gorman to the rugged limestone uplands of North- ern Thailand, where he excavated three similar unimposing rock shelters known as Spirit Cave, Steep Cliff Cave, and Banyan Valley Cave. He used a very fine mesh for screening the cultural material from these sites, and recovered plant remains preserved in the dry de- posits. Although a number of claims have appeared that these sites were the foci of early plant cultivation [4], there is in fact no supporting evidence at all. On the contrary, the people who occa- sionally camped at Spirit Cave seem to have collected local plants for medicinal purposes, as stimulants, for their poiso- nous properties, and as food. No rice was found there. The rice chaff found at Banyan Valley Cave has been assigned to a local wild variety, and has been dated to as late as about 1000 years ago PI.

The excavation of Khok Phanom Di In 1984, I was given the opportunity to throw some light on the question of early rice through the examination of the prehistoric sequence in the lower reaches of the Bang Pakong valley. This river is one of the four major distribu- taries which empty into the Gulf of Siam, and our survey area stretches from the present coast to about 30 km inland. It seems that the sea level ulti- mately rose higher than at present, and then fluctuated until it edged back to the current coastline. During this period, which dates from about 6000 B.C., thick deposits of clay were laid down when the sediment brought down

by the rivers reached the sea. This clay in the vicinity of a large and impressive in our survey area attains a depth of mound known as Khok Phanom Di. over 7 m. When we surveyed this flat Already, we knew something about terrain, it was soon apparent that much this 5 ha mound, which rises up to 12 m prehistoric activity had been blanketed above the surrounding countryside. On by such deposits. Our fieldwork focused three occasions, Thai colleagues had

0 PM MO 300 4al YJlkm ---

Figure 1 A. Principal archaeological sites in Southeast Asia relevant to the early cultivation of rice. 6. Excavations of graves at Khok Phanom Di provide evidence of a social organization in which rice serves not only as a staple food but also has ritual significance. On the right is the skeleton of a woman of about 20, together with that of a child 10-12 years old of which she was perhaps the mother. The two male skeletons were perhaps her brothers - one might have been her husband.

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sounded it, and their results were so impressive that a major campaign of excavations was encouraged. They en- countered prehistoric remains to a depth of over 8 m, including human burials, beautiful pottery vessels, the remains of a marine fauna, and even fragments of rice. But their excavations were restricted to small test squares. When - as part of a joint team from the Royal Department of Fine Arts (Thai- land), the Queen’s University of Bel- fast, the Australian National Universi- ty, and the University of Otago - a bigger project was feasible, I decided to open a much larger area to seek the distribution of burials, and evidence for structures which have for too long been so elusive to the archaeologists working in Southeast Asia. In the event, we chose an area 10 x 10 m square. We covered it with a roof spanning 13 m to protect the excavations from sun and rain, and seven months after commenc- ing the research, reached the natural soil at a depth of nearly 7 m.

As the team of excavators worked their way through the complex layering of prehistoric deposits, Bernard Maloney of Belfast was taking cores through the sediments surrounding the site, with a view to extracting the fossil pollen grains for detailed analysis. A sample of each context within the site was processed by Jill Thompson (ANU) to recover any organic remains, includ- ing, we hoped, the remains of rice. Brian Vincent, our ceramicist, was at the same time engaged in the on-site analysis of the pottery sherds we en- countered, and taking samples of the local clay to ascertain whether the pots were fashioned locally, or introduced through exchange.

The richness of the remains from Khok Phanom Di exceeded our most ambitious hopes. Perhaps the single most exciting point is that, for the grea- ter part of the sequence, the area we excavated had been designated a cemet- ery. We encountered just over 1.50 hu- man burials which, from start to finish, were laid out with the head pointing to the rising sun. Such was the quality of the preservation of organic remains that we found some skeletons still lying on their wooden bier, with fragments of bark-cloth winding sheets adhering to the bone. Two individuals revealed the semi-digested remains of their last meal: many tiny fish bones and fish scales. Men and women, children and infants, even the tiniest babies, were given similar treatment, their bodies dusted with red ochre and interred with a range of grave goods. These included pottery vessels, described by Brian Vin- cent as masterpieces; shell jewellery; and either shell or bone bracelets. Some of the women and infants were accom- panied by the clay anvils used to fashion

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clay into pottery vessels, and men and women were often buried with pebbles which had been used to burnish the pots to a lustrous black sheen. It is very clear that this prehistoric community in- cluded specialist potters.

A second intriguing feature of this cemetery is that the dead were buried alongside and over each other in dis- crete clusters. These buri,al areas had been ringed by posts which may have supported a roof. In other words, we have evidence for wooden collective tombs. By following the course of bu- rials through time, we can actually count probable generations of the diffe- rent families. For the two most com- plete family lines, we have evidence for about 17 successive generations. Other groups were less successful it seems, and may have died out through high infant deaths or fissioned to establish daughter settlements. It is also particu- larly interesting to note that both family lines, particularly in the later part of the sequence, consisted almost entirely of females and children. When we consid- er this phenomenon in conjunction with hereditary abnormalities in their bones, it seems that we are in the presence of a matrilineally organized community, in which women in particular were consi- dered important, and stayed in their community of birth. Men may have married out to other communities, and occasionally been returned to Khok Phanom Di for burial near their mother.

The first two or three generations buried their dead in a dispersed man- ner, and only then began to group bodies closely. There were periods when, for two or at the most three generations, one group was markedly richer in terms of pottery vessels and shell jewellery than another. Wealth and status seem to have oscillated be- tween the groups. Wealthy adults en- dowed their dead infants with rich grave goods, but a generation or two later, their descendents reverted to relative poverty. After the passage of 15 genera- tions, there was a dramatic change. A woman aged about 35 years at death was buried with outstanding wealth at a time when no others were interred in the vicinity of her grave. Her grave was 3 m long and a metre wide. A particular feature of her burial was the quantity of shell jewellery she wore: over 120000 shell disc beads and 950 large I-shaped beads, probably fashioned from the central spire of a turbinid shell, were found in the chest area and under her back. Two horned discs ground so thin as to be translucent, and made from Tridacna shell, were found at each shoulder. The remains of a shell head- ress survived, and not only were there another half dozen superb pottery ves- sels over the lower limbs, but also a

shell containing two burnishing pebbles, adjacent to her clay anvil. She had been, it seems, a potter. Shortly after her burial, two infants were placed near her grave. Both were richly endowed with grave goods and one, a child of 18 months at death, was interred in an identical manner to the older woman.

If we are correct in our interpretation of the family history, this outstanding wealth was not inherited by the next three generations, whose graves were poor. Yet, nearby, the occupants of the site later raised a mortuary structure over two rich females and the remains of a 6-year-old child. These three bu- rials again stand out for their wealth. Soon after these three were buried, the sea level fell, and the site, shorn of access to coastal resources, was aban- doned.

Throughout the occupancy of the site, the inhabitants consumed rice. We find rice chaff surviving in the cultural layers, and the preliminary examination of the many probably human faeces we found has revealed fish bone and rice. Rice chaff was also used occasionally to temper the clay before making pots. Not only have the polished stone adzes, used in forest clearance, been found, but also heavy granite hoes which we think were used for working the soil. Over 400 shell knives have been ex- amined for traces of use-wear, and the striations and polish on the cutting sur- faces are consistent with the cutting of rice stalks during harvesting. Evidence for rice exploitation goes further than this. Kenneth McKenzie (Riverina- Murray Institute, Wagga Wagga) has identified a species of ostracod in the cultural layers which is well adapted to life in rice fields. All these sources point to rice as being part of a diet based on the rich resources of a major estuary.

Further information on the environ- ment of these people has been provided by Maloney’s work on the pollen cores [6]. Throughout the period when the deposition of marine clays was progres- sing, the area was dominated by a coas- tal mangrove vegetation, suggesting that Khok Phanom Di was located near the sea. At the same time, McKenzie’s research on the ostracods and forami- nifera from the site demonstrates estuarine conditions. Periodically, there was a major rise in the quantity of charcoal fragments in the sediment cores. Of course, such fires could have resulted from natural conflagrations, but some of these periods were also marked by a rise in grass pollen as well as increased quantities of the pollen from weeds known today to flourish in rice fields. From this combination of factors, we can infer - as we noted earlier - the likelihood that a human community in the vicinity was interfer- ing with the natural vegetation, perhaps

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Figure 2 Jewellery recovered from graves at Ban Na Di. Left, pottery figurine of a bovine, about 13 cm in length: right, stone and shell bracelet. The value set on such bracelets is indicated by the fact that when broken they were often carefully repaired by bronze wire.

to create conditions favourable to the proliferation of rice.

We now turn to a most critical issue, that of chronology. The layers at Khok Phanom Di contained numerous hearths, from which 18 charcoal sam- ples have been dated by the convention- al radiocarbon method. Hitherto, it has been very difficult to date clay sediment cores, but due to the development of radiocarbon dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), samples weighing no more than 1 mg can now be dated. This has reduced the acceptable sample size by a factor of one thousand [7]. So far, the Oxford University laboratory for AMS dating has returned 8 such dates from 2 sediment cores taken from within 60 m of Khok Phanom Di. There are, therefore, now 26 dates available for a review of the dating of prehistoric activity on and near the site It is evident that the earliest burnings associated with rises in grass and weed pollen took place between about 4000-4500 B.C. Earlier charcoal peaks, which may reflect natural or hunter-gatherer in- duced fires, date back to 4700-5800 B.C.; that is, not long after the marine clays began to form. Following a series of slight fluctuations in sea level over these millennia, the basal context at Khok Phanom Di formed about 2000 B.C. and the radiocarbon chronology suggests that the cemetery was used for a period of about 400-500 years. This is in keeping with the passage of about 20 generations disclosed in the collective burial areas.

We have learnt a lot already from this site. It seems likely that the coastal area attracted settlement involving the clear- ance of tree cover by burning and the favouring of grasses during the 5th mil- lennium B.C. This is about the same order of antiquity as the earliest evi- dence for rice cultivation in the valley of the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) River in

China. The settlement sites in question lie entombed under the marine clays: one of them was found in May 1988 when villagers encountered ash and pot- tery when digging a fish pond near the prehistoric mound. The inhabitants of Khok Phanom Di were heirs to a long tradition of coastal living. They already possessed great skills in pottery making, they were sedentary, and chose a rich estuarine location in which to live. They commanded excellent resources of pot- ting clay and exchanged their pots for exotic shell jewellery and stone arte- facts. Stone was rare locally, and they needed adze blades, sandstone for grinding and sharpening, shale for powdering red ochre, granite for hoes, and pebbles for burnishing stones. Set in a dominating location on the major estuary, they seem to have displayed their rank and status through the own- ership of shell jewellery. Individuals competed for these valuables; but since it was the women who made the pots, they assumed such importance that they remained in the community of their birth.

Now, what role might rice have play- ed? At present, it is likely that they created favourable conditions for this plant to grow in natural swamps or ponds behind the mangrove fringe. The people were so robust and well-fed, according to their bone development, that food scarcity was hardly a serious issue. This finding gains support when we consider the wealth of the estuary in terms of fish, and the abundance of renewable marine resources such as crabs, turtles, and shellfish. In terms of dietary balance, it is true that rice would have been a good supplement to the marine foods, but it is also important to consider the role food might have play- ed in gaining status. Jewellery and pot- tery vessels were used in the mortuary ritual, but we also encounter ash

spreads and food residues near graves which intimate that funerary feasting also occurred. A consideration of recent island communities in, for example, the Massim area to the east of New Guinea, reveals that funerary feasting and the display of food is an important element in gaining status. Pigs and yams, for example, are accumulated not to satisfy hunger but to gain prestige. It is, there- fore, considered likely that the produc- tion of rice, and its presentation in beautiful pottery containers, not only at funerals but quite possibly at other feasting occasions, was a social as well as a subsistence requirement.

The expansion away from the coast One of the most widespread phe- nomena associated with a sedentary way of life is population growth and the expansion of human settlement. When a community does not move periodical- ly to obtain food, people are able to build permanent structures, own heavy goods, and develop stable exchange re- lationships with other villages. There is also encouragement to increase in num- bers, particularly where labour is valued in making specialized artefacts, mod- ifying the environment, or simply gathering and processing foodstuffs.

Southeast Asia was no exception to this trend towards an increasing popula- tion, and the interior lowlands, particu- larly areas with access to lakes or streams, are studded with small prehis- toric settlements. We find them in the Middle Country above the Red River delta, where Vietnamese archaeologists have labelled them the Phung Nguyen culture. Several are known in the plains bordering the Tonle Sap in Cambodia, while in Northeast Thailand, concerted efforts on the Khorat Plateau have iden- tified numerous prehistoric villages three of which (Ban Chiang, Ban Na Di, and Non Nok Tha) have been sub- jected to major excavation campaigns [8,9]. Despite intensive site surveys, no early hunter-gatherer sites have yet been found. Rather, there appears to have been an expansionary phase of settlement by people already familiar with domestic animals and the making of pottery, and who included rice in their diet.

Dating this expansion of human set- tlement is controversial, and by no means settled yet. This problem reflects the problems encountered in obtaining good, secure samples of charcoal for dating purposes. The issue is best illus- trated in the context of the site of Non Nok Tha, excavated by Donn Bayard and Hamilton Parker (Otago) under the overall direction of Wilhelm Solheim between 1965 and 1968. This site, lo- cated towards the western margin of the Khorat Plateau, is only about 1.2 m deep, but contains numerous human

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graves. These were initially cut into the natural soil hut later graves intercut earlier ones as the number of inter- ments multiplied. The dating problem begins with a rarity of charcoal, but increases when it is considered that prehistoric grave digging may well have relocated charcoal in antiquity. Conse- quently, the radiocarbon dates from this site do not reveal a consistent pattern and several interpretations are feasible. This is a major impediment to our understanding of the cultural sequence, because at Non Nok Tha, there was a transition from an early period, with no evidence for bronze working, to a later one where bronze axe heads and bang- les were numbered among the grave goods. Whereas Bayard favours initial occupation during the 3rd millennium B.C. with bronze appearing about 2000 B.C. [lo], my own preference is for a relatively brief use of the site as a cemetery, dating for a few centuries within the 2nd m~llent~ium B.C. This interpretation would see the first bronzes in Southeast Asia appearing between 140&2000 B.C.[ll]. The same problem with chronology bedevils the interpretation of another site, at Ban Chiang, which was excavated in 1974-S WI-

If we suspend judgement on the chro- nology, there remains much of interest in the early horizons at these two sites. The inhumation burials already indicate an interest in rare valuables, such as shell ornaments and beautiful pottery vessels in the mortuary ritual. The faun- al remains from Ban Chiang document access to fresh water and subsistence based on fishing, trapping, collecting, and hunting. Most importantly, pottery from early contexts has revealed the occasional use of rice as a temper for the clay used in fashioning pots. As yet, we are unsure whether the inhabitants simply harvested wild rice or deliberate- ly propagated it along the margins of the lakes and streams near their settle- ments. A concerted programme involv- ing pollen analysis and appIication of flotation techniques for recovering organic material will be needed to add to our knowledge. But we do know that the communities were sedentary, and that new settlements were founded as population levels grew.

One such settlement is Ban Na Di, located in a low-lying area prone to flooding. The basal layers there contain numerous sandy lenses deposited by flood water. It was chosen following a site survey in the lacustrine flood plain of the nearby Lake Kumphawapi, in order to expand our knowledge of the chronology and culture of those who lived at sites such as Ban Chiang, only 17 km to the northeast. Amphan Kijngam and I found there a cultural sequence 4 m deep, the initial settle-

86

asot Pram Loven

Figure 3 The intensive cultivation of rice benefitted from the introduction of the plough and also from the development of an irrigation system. At Oc Eo Louis Malleret discovered a canal system constructed about ZOO-550 AD. These canals served a triple purpose: for irrigation, for transport, and for water storage. The Khmer princes also constructed dams and diverted rivers to supply their cities.

ment of which probably occurred be- tween 1400-1000 B.C. These early set- tlers were already familiar with bronze casting, and soon established their cemetery. Again, it is in the context of death that we can find out most about their lives. People were interred in dis- tinct clusters, alongside and over each other. Their bone development reveals a robust way of life and a good diet. According to one index of bone growth, they were as well fed as the modern inhabitants of Ohio. A glance at the food remains reveals that they caught many fish in their nets, maintained domestic cattIe and pigs, hunted widely, and consumed rice. The carbonized rice grains recovered have been identified as a probable domestic variety.

Two different groups of graves were found. It is notable that exotic grave goods, particularly shell jewellery and

bronzes, were concentrated in one of them. The richer set also yielded all the ciay cattle figurines, and a handful of bracelets fashioned from exotic stone. These were evidently so cherished that when they fractured, they were repaired by casting thin bronze tie-rods through holes bored on each side of the break. It seems that, as at Khok Phanom Di, the community was divided into different family lines, and that one of these attained higher rank and status.

According to our estimates of site size, even the most generous estimates of population numbers indicates a population of only a few hundred. The reality, at least during the early phases of village settlement, may have been a population of well under a hundred people. If we now estimate the food requirements of such a number, we find that it would have been almost incon-

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ceivable for them to encounter a food shortage, even during the long dry sea- son. The production of rice, as with the raising of livestock, may have been undertaken not only to supply a varied diet, but also to fulfil the mortuary and other ritual obligations which accompa- nied the quest for status and rank. Within this model, control of access to ingots of copper and tin, or to the silk clothing in which individuals were buried, would have been variables as significant as the ownership of cattle or of the most productive riceland.

Centralization and change: the advent of iron At the end of the first mortuary phase at Ban Na Di, we encounter evidence for one of a series of major changes which were to strike at the roots of these small, autonomous communities. Two graves were found to contain iron im- plements; a spearhead, some bangles, and a knife. The coming of iron prob- ably took place betweeen 500-l B.C., its timing varying regionally. During this same period we also encounter clear evidence for a quickening of ex- change as Indian traders brought a new range of exotic items, - such as beads of glass, agate, and carnelian - to the coastal communities of Southeast Asia. Coincidentally, this period also witnes- sed the formulation of a new policy of imperial Chinese expansion as the period of Warring States was followed by relative internal peace under the Han Dynasty. This expansionary phase was to see the lands of the Red River delta incorporated as provinces of the Han Empire.

Resistance to a foreign invader, the control by strategically placed com- munities of the flow of exotic goods, and the more ready availability of such a potent resource as iron are all factors which foster centralizing political ten- dencies. Quite simply, this involves the replacement of autonomy within small communities by regional dominance by a line of hereditary chiefs whose deci- sions affect the lives of their depen- dents. In the Red River delta area, we can catch a glimpse of this warrior aris- tocracy through the decoration their bronze workers cast on their great cere- monial drums. Such drums were but one of a whole new range of bronze objects cast for the chiefly ‘aristocrats. We also find ornamented body plaques, ritual drinking vessels and ladles, spear- heads, and swords. Much more ore was mined, smelted, and a far greater weight of bronze was cast than ever before. The grave of a smith at Lang Ca, a cemetery on the northern bank of the Red River, was accompanied by a crucible capable of casting 12 kg of bronze. It was these leaders who en-

tered the dawn of the historic period when they were referred to in Chinese documents as the Lac lords, owners of the best available land, whose followers were able to harvest two crops of rice annually.

While it has been suggested that, hitherto, rice was part of a broad spec- trum of foodstuffs in prehistoric South- east Asia, it also stood apart as the one most susceptible to intensified produc- tion. It is suggested that it was within the emerging chiefdoms that this rise to prominence began. We can document this trend both in terms of surviving artefacts used in rice cultivation, and the attention which was increasingly devoted to the control of water.

Let us start with the first issue. Until the period of centralized chiefdoms, the surviving evidence favours the use of the stone hoe for preparing the soil. The onset of Han expansion in Vietnam saw the introduction of the socketed bronze ploughshare. This represents a major technological advance, if only because ploughing permits a much greater area to be turned over to agriculture. Moreover, a man using the plough can generate a much larger surplus of pro- duction over his basic requirements than can the hoe agriculturalist. Centra- lization also involved larger concentra- tions of population than had been the case before, and the casting of special- ized bronzes indicates the maintenance of craft specialists at such centres. We can now see how the expansion of rice production played a critical social func- tion. By the provision of surpluses, it was possible to attract followers and maintain specialists. When such special- ists cast bronze into dazzling objects of display, such as the great sets of drums, we can appreciate how rice was, in effect, converted into advertisements of rank by sustaining the bronze worker. In this context, it is not difficult to appreciate the significance of the depic- tion on one of their bronze drums of rice being prepared.

The Red River delta, however, is an unusual instance because it was first touched, and later overwhelmed, by Chinese armies. It also has a relatively moist rather than a full dry season, and is therefore more able to sustain two crops a year. For much of lowland Southeast Asia west of the Truong Son Cordillera, there is a long and hard period of little or no rain between November and May. It was in these lands that early civilizations arose which incorporated Indian religious ideas and political philosophy. Already by the be- ginning of the first millennium A.D., we find that settlements were growing lar- ger and that iron axes and weapons were being forged in considerable num- bers. At Ban Don Ta Phet, at the eastern end of the Three Pagodas Pass,

Ian Glover has unearthed part of a cemetery in which individuals were buried not only with Indian jewellery, but also locally made bronze bowls of great technical sophistication [ 131. Simi- lar bowls have been found in India, suggesting two-way exchange [ 141.

Such early hints at expanding hori- zons turn into a veritable flood when we consider the results of Louis Malleret’s pioneering research at the great centre of Oc Eo, located on the Rach Gia peninsula near the mouth of the Bassac River [15]. This site lies within a multi- moated rectangular enceinte with an area of 450 ha. It lies at the junction of several major canals mapped on the basis of aerial photographs by Pierre Paris [16]. These waterways probably drained this low-lying area during the Mekong floods and thereby improve prospects for rice cultivation. They could also have been used to transport goods between the cult centres which were developing across the lower Mekong landscape. Oc Eo was prob- ably occupied for several centuries from about 200 A.D., and Malleret has pub- lished a remarkable array of precious goods from the site, including Roman medallions minted during the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, Iranian coinage, and jewellery inscribed in an Indian script. Glass jewellery and tin amulets were locally manufactured and the list of precious stones found there covers virtually the entire range available in Southeast Asia.

What Malleret discovered was a node in an exchange network linking the Mediterranean world with India and China during the first few centuries of the Christian era. Local leaders in Southeast Asia, adopting Indian ideas on the consecration of kings from Indi- ans in their midst, began to vie for supremacy. In this context, status and power are very much dependent on attracting followers. Labour and skill can be converted into obvious signs of high status, and during the first millen- nium A.D., aristocratic lineages strived to indicate their supremacy by building impressive religious monuments to the worship of the gods of the Indian panth- eon, particularly Siva. Since close devo- tion and asceticism in the services of Siva can actually confer divine qualities, these leaders found a path to personal divinity. We can see this process most clearly at the cult centre of Kanapura, one of many which mushroomed in the broad plains flanking the Mekong River south of the Dang Raek Mountains. This was the base of a notable leader known as Islnavarman. He had stone temples constructed to his chosen god, ringed by walls to form an enclosed sacred space, and had inscriptions carved in Sanskrit which described his prowess in war and virtues in peace.

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Not least, his centre was ringed by moats which would have provided water during the dry season. A Chinese visit- ing his court described the ruler main- taining a thousand soldiers as well as court and religious functionaries. Such concentrated human activity would not have been feasible unless it was under- pinned by a healthy surplus of rice production.

The climax: the establishment of Angkor Many of the trends noted in the courtly cult centres were magnified and institu- tionalized at Angkor. It began with the energetic and innovative Jayavarman II, who first overcame rival leaders in battle, and then proceeded to establish his court in the vicinity of the present centre of Angkor in the early ninth century A.D. He was succeeded by a line of rulers many of whom showed considerable energy in the development of Angkor over the ensuing six centur- ies. Essentially, political control over much of mainland Southeast Asia in- volved the mobilization of people and resources to the central purpose, which was to create as it were, a veritable heaven on earth manifested in stone structures. Dominant among these were the temple-mausolea of the deified rul- ers. We can gain pa~icularly clear in- sight into the relationship between the ancestor cult and rice production when we consider the foundation endowment for the temple of Rajavihara at Angkor. Dedicated in 1186 by Jayavarman VII to his mother, this foundation was sus- tained by some 80000 people living in over 3000 villages. Almost 6000 officiants, from high priests to dancers, fulfilled the ritual functions, and they had to be provided not only with cam- phor and sandalwood, but also with rice.

The jewel among these edifices is Angkor Wat, mausoleum of Suryavar- man II, whose name in literal transla- tion means the Sun King. We can gain some idea of the magnificence of cere- monial life at Angkor from a descrip- tion of a procession of Indravarman II seen through the eyes of the visiting Chinese, Zhou Daguan, between Au- gust 1296 and July of the following year.

‘When the king goes out, troops are at the head of the escort; then come flags, ban- ners, and music. Palace women, number- ing from three to five hundred, wearing

flowered cloth, with flowers in their hair, hold candles in their hands, and form a troupe. Even in broad daylight, the can- dles are lighted. Then come other palace women, carrying lances and shields, the king’s private guards . carts drawn by goats and horses, all in gold, come next. Ministers and princes are mounted on elephants, and in front of them one can see, from afar, their innumerable red umbrellas. After them come the wives and concubines of the king, in palanquins, carriages, on horseback and on elephants. They have more than a hundred parasols, flecked with gold. Behind them comes the sovereign, standing on an elephant, hold- ing his sacred sword in his hand. The elephant’s tusks are encased in gold [17].’

The mausolea, the royal palaces, re- viewing grounds, and sacred precincts are the most visible of the remains at Angkor, but a further critical element remains in the complex: the barays, or reservoirs. The largest of these, the so- called Western Baray, had a capacity of 70 million cubic metres. These reser- voirs were fed by streams issuing from the Kulen Plateau, to the north, where headwaters were diverted to maximize flows towards Angkor f18j. Part of their functions was surely ritual, to represent the lakes said to surround Mount Meru, home of the gods in Indian cosmology. But there was a more practical intent. Between Angkor and the northern shores of Tonle Sap is a tract of low land well adapted to rice cultivation, but the problem is that monsoon rains are un- predictable. They may be sufficient to sustain a rice crop, but periods of insuf- ficiency always threaten. The stored wa- ter in the barays could, therefore, have been released through reticulation can- als to sustain rice until further rains fell. The king and overlord of Angkor, in provtdmg water through his barays, therefore fulfilled the very functions of a god, to sustain his people.

And so it remains to this day in the Kingdom of Thailand, where the bountiful soil of the Chao Phraya plains are provided with water from huge con- crete dams named after the .King and Queen. Both in the court rituals of the Chakri Dynasty and the concern of the King with success in agriculture, we can detect the shadow of the overlords of ancient Angkor. It is salutary to reflect that the edifice of Southeast Asian civi- lization rests on the solid foundations of a swamp grass to which successive gen- erations of human societies have turned for food, to project status and to ex-

change for other desirable commod- ities. Paradoxicaliy, the remains of the earliest people to exploit it probably lie deep below the present delta rice fields or in the sediments under the shallow seas which skirt mainland Southeast Asia.

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(4), 34-41, 1972. [5] Yen. D. ‘Sunda and Sahui’, pp. 567-99.

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[12] White, J. ‘Ban Chiang. The Discovery of a Lost Bronze Age’, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. -

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[16] Paris, P. BEFEO, 31, 221-4, 1931. f17] Chandler, D. ‘A History of Cambodia’,

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