Chief Investigator: PETER GRAVE,
Partner Investigator: LISA KEALHOFER
Cultivating the Tropical Forest: 12000 years of landuse in the highlands of northern Thailand

ABSTRACT

When, where and how hunter-gatherers became agriculturalists in the Old World tropics remains highly controversial. The Mae Hong Son region, in northern Thailand, provides an excellent opportunity to address these fundamental questions with archaeological contexts spanning the Late Pleistocene to the present. We will establish baseline environmental sequences, reassess sites excavated in the 1960s and early 1970s and investigate new loci to develop a comprehensive record of occupation and environmental change for the last 12000 years. These data will allow the first detailed regional assessment of the transition from hunting-gathering to cultivation, and the role management of forest resources played.

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