Khok Phanom Di

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Khok Phanom Di ( Thai : โคก พนม ดี ) is an archaeological site in the district ( Amphoe ) Phanat Nikhom , Chonburi province in the southeast of Bangkok .

location

Khok Phanom Di lies in the alluvial plain of the Bang Pakong River and is about 14 km north of Nong Nor , another rich prehistoric site. Khok Phanom Di extends over about 5 hectares and rises to more than 12 meters above the surrounding rice fields.

Excavation history

The elevation of Khok Phanom Di has received a lot of attention among local and foreign archaeologists. Damrongkiadt Noksakul from the Chachoengsao Teachers College began the first excavations here, which were continued by Pornchai Suchitra ( Silpakorn University ) and Pirapon Pisnupong ( Fine Arts Department , Thailand). Building on their results, Charles Higham and Rachanie Thosarat carried out a major excavation in 1984/85 , who found the earliest layer of settlement after 7 months of excavation work on an area of ​​100 m² at a depth of 7 meters.

Results

Khok Phanom Di was formerly on the coast and has been around since 2000 BC. Inhabited for around five centuries. Many amazingly well-preserved tombs have been found here, containing pottery and rice. The pottery is similar to Nong Nor's, both in terms of shape and decoration.

During the approximately 500 years of settlement, the environmental conditions have gradually changed, as the approximately 200 species of ostracods and foraminifera show: the first settlers lived on the banks of a wide estuary with mangrove forests that were cut with stone axes. It was a rather damp place, but ceramics were already being made there. The settlement is divided into seven grave sites ( mortuary phases , MP). Location MP1 began around 2000 BC. In that early phase of settlement the dead were buried in shallow pits, mostly with their heads facing east.

In the MP2 location, the graves were arranged like a chessboard. A garbage pit for mussel shells is also part of it and its rectangular shape suggests that it bordered on solid structures, such as B. wooden walls. Among the 137,000 shells are mainly those from crustaceans that had adapted to mangroves in the tidal range . All harpoons made from bone come from this location, and fish hooks are also found. Wild boars and macaques have been hunted, but dog bones are also found. The pattern of the east-facing graves continues, with individual graves arranged in groups next to them. The people were apparently well fed, the muscular men. Infant mortality was high, most likely from anemia , but the fertility rate was tremendously high.

In the MP3 location, wild boars and macaques dominated as protein suppliers, only two bone finds indicate dogs. The men were larger than they had been at any time during the settlement, but anemia was still prevalent. Half of the graves were intended for children. Crustaceans are increasingly taking a back seat to turtles when it comes to grave goods .

Major environmental changes appear to have taken place during MP4, perhaps due to a change in the Bang Pakong river bed. The mangrove forests apparently decreased.

The seven layers allow many conclusions to be drawn about the life of around twenty generations. Apparently the people were not only active locally, but also had trade relations. Around 1600 BC They left Khok Phanom Di, perhaps because living conditions were changing for the worse.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Higham and Thosarat (1998), pp. 44-63

literature

Coordinates: 13 ° 35 ′ 23.3 "  N , 101 ° 8 ′ 29.7"  E