BAN CHIANG
, A PREHISTORIC V
ILLAGE SITEIN N
ORTHEAST THAILAND , I: THE
HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS
. By Michael Pietrusewsky and Michele Toomay Douglas. University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.
2002. ISBN 0-924171-92-8. 493 pp., 114 figures, 81
tables, with CD-ROM. $100 (cloth).
The Ban Chiang archaeological
site in northeast Thailand is best known for the spectacular pottery
and developed bronze metallurgy. The skeletal material excavated
from the site spans a period from 2100 B.C
. to A.D . 200. This span includes
the late neolithic, bronze age, and iron age deposits, representing a single
cultural tradition that underwent significant changes in technology and
a shift toward intensified rice cultivation. Major excavations were
undertaken in 1974 and 1975 by the joint program of the Fine Arts Department
of Thailand and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology. The Smithsonian Institution produced a traveling exhibition
"Ban Chiang: Discovery of a Lost Bronze Age" in 1982. The site was
inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1992 as the most important prehistoric
settlement so far discovered in Southeast Asia.
The human skeletal remains were shipped
to Hawaii and the cleaning, restoration, and data collecting were made
by the authors and students in the Department of Anthropology of the
University of Hawaii at Manoa. The material is currently stored
in the above department, but will eventually be returned to Thailand.
This book published as the first volume
of a series of excavation reports edited by Joyce C. White gives a full
report of physical anthropological studies on more than 142 human skeletal
remains recovered from the site. It will be followed by volumes
presenting the excavations, chronology, and stratigraphy of Ban Chiang
and the archaeometallurgy of northeast Thailand.
The subject of the authors' investigation
was not confined to adult materials and cranial remains but included
all the subadult materials and every bone of the skeleton. Research
methods, outlined in Chapter 2 (Methods), are comprehensive, covering
not only traditional measurements and indices but also non-metric morphological
variation and palaeopathology (including cultural and activity-induced
alterations). One of the major features of this volume is the heavy
emphasis laid on detailed palaeopathological description of the bones and
teeth that amounts to about two-fifths of the text.
The primary purpose of this volume is the comprehensive
presentation of descriptive data of human remains excavated in 1974 and
1975 at the village of Ban Chiang. It is fully achieved by descriptions
in Chapters 3, 10 (Skeletal Condition: Noteworthy Burials), Chapters 5,6,8
(Craniology; Dental Morphology; Infracranial Skeletal Morphology), Chapters
7,9 (Dental Palaeopathology; Palaeopathology of the Skull and Infracranial
Skeleton), and by numerous tables of data compiled in Appendices A-D at
the end of the book (Bone Element Inventory; Summary and Supplemental Data
Tables; Ban Chiang Burial Descriptions; Miscellaneous Human Remains) and
Appendix E (Computerized Files of Individual Raw Data) contained in the
accompanying compact disc. Among other things, the raw individual data
provided in the CD will be especially helpful since "future researchers will
be able to address these data with new methods and new questions" repeatedly.
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Although the emphasis laid on is relatively
less than the descriptive portion, the results of analytical and comparative
studies presented in Chapters 4, 11, and 12 (Palaeodemography; Temporal
and Spatial Variation; The Ban Chiang Skeletal Series in Regional Perspective)
are by no means less significant in contributing to our knowledge on the
population history in Southeast Asia. The following is a summary
of the conclusions on the more important issues given in Chapter 13 (Conclusions):
1) In spite of the introduction of intensified rice
cultivation during the Middle Period at Ban Chiang, there is no clear
evidence for a rapid population expansion, a decline in health, or an increase
in interpersonal violence (or warfare) in the skeletal series with the
times.
2) There is little skeletal evidence for a population
replacement or a new, markedly different, group of people at the site.
3) The two alternative proposals for the peopling
of Southeast Asia, successive migrations and replacements or biological
continuity from at least the late Pleistocene, cannot be dismissed so
easily. Although the general pattern of skeletal and dental morphology
observed in the Ban Chiang series is consistent with that seen in extant
peoples of the southern portion of eastern Asia, there are some differences
in tooth sixe, stature, and limb bone proportion. While Ban Chiang
is most similar to other prehistoric skeletal series from northeast Thailand,
Laos, and Vietnam, connections with bronze age northern Chinese (Anyang),
Jomon (Japan) and the recent Ryukyu Islanders are also indicated, suggesting
a complex prehistoric biological relationship. There is no indication
of connection with Australian and Melanesian groups. The marked contrasts
between Ban Chiang and the coastal site of Khok Phanom Di in central Thailand
suggest both ecological and genetic differences between inland and coastal
populations. Human population history in this region cannot be reduced
to a simple scenario.
In accordance with the editor's intention, the
volume is written in a clear and direct style that is highly readable
for nonprofessional readers. Each chapter provides a clear overview
of the goals and significance of respective subject, and many of the morphological
variations and pathological changes are well illustrated with pictures
of high quality. These will be of great help for researchers in other
areas, students of physical anthropology, and general readers. The
book may also serve as an excellent reader for graduate course in human
skeletal biology.
I fully agree with C. Loring Brace who writes
in his foreword to this volume that "this monograph takes its place as
an outstanding example of the scholarly contributions that Pietrusewsky
has been making......to our understanding of the nature of the people of
the Pacific and their continental Asian neighbors......" and the authors'
"comprehensive approach to their data set will serve as a model for future
skeletal reports in Southeast Asia and beyond."
Bin Yamaguchi
Emeritus Anthropologist, National Science Museum
3-23-1 Hyakunin-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
169-0073, Japan
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