Joyce C. White

Joyce Carol White (* 1952 ) is an American archaeologist and paleobotanist who became known for dating finds from the prehistory of Thailand and Laos .

Life

In 1977 White wrote her master's thesis on Stalking the wild legume: pre-agricultural plant exploitation strategies in Palestine . From 1978 to 1981 she conducted field research in Ban Chiang to determine how the local population found and used crops. In the 1990s she undertook on-site research with which the prehistoric use of the environment in different parts of Thailand was mapped and evaluated. Mrs. White was in 1986 with the thesis A revision of the chronology of Ban Chiang and its implications for the prehistory of northeast Thailand doctorate .

Since 2001, White has been exploring and excavating various sites in northern Laos, especially in Luang Prabang Province . White, along with other scientists, is working on the findings made in 1974 and 1975 by the American archaeologist Chester Gorman from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology together with Thai archaeologists in Ban Chiang in the Udon Thani province in northeastern Thailand. Archaeologists deduce from these finds that a previously unknown prehistoric culture in Southeast Asia developed its own Bronze Age culture. The results of the research that has been carried out at the excavation sites to date (2012) are to be published by White, among others. The excavations and research as well as the task of publishing the results are supported by various bodies, in addition to the Museum in Philadelphia, among others, by the National Geographic Society .

Since the beginning of the 2000s, White has been the chief excavator of the Middle Mekong Archeological Project, which is looking for and excavating traces of settlement from the Bronze Age in Laos .

In 2010 she received the badge of honor from the Crown Princess of Thailand, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn , presented on the occasion of the inauguration of the National Museum in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ban Chiang.

Fonts

Monographs

• Ban Chiang. Discovery of a Lost Bronze Age . The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Philadelphia, 1982, ISBN 0-812278712 .
• Stable Isotopic Analysis of Carbon and Nitrogen as an Indicator of Paleodietary Change among Pre-state Metal Age Societies in Northeast Thailand . BAR International Series 1788, Archaeopress, Oxford 2008. pdf
• together with EG Hamilton: Ban Chiang, a Prehistoric Village Site in Northeast Thailand II: The Metal Remains in Regional Context . University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia (in preparation)

Scientific Article

• Emergence of Cultural Diversity in Mainland South East Asia: a View from Prehistory . In: NJ Enfield (Ed.): Dynamics of Human Diversity. The Case of Mainland Southeast Asia . Pacific Linguistic, 2011, pp. 9-46 pdf .

Web links

• Short biography of the scientist (en.)