<< Our Photo Pages >> Khok Phanom Di - Ancient Village or Settlement in Thailand
Submitted by Zersli on Saturday, 24 August 2013 Page Views: 8707
Multi-periodSite Name: Khok Phanom Di Alternative Name: โคกพนมดีCountry: Thailand
NOTE: This site is 49.816 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Phantasie Nikhom Nearest Village: Barn Khok Phanom Di
Latitude: 13.575600N Longitude: 101.147730E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Khok Phanom Di is a small hill of 5 ha that rises 12 meters above the surrounding rice fields. There is a small Buddhist temple on top of it but access is no problem. Because many potsherds of old ceramics were found archaeologists made two test excavations. They were very successful due to rich finds of prehistoric pottery, tools made from stone and bone and even graves.
So they lead an excavation from December 1984 to July 1985. The excavation area had 100 m2 and went more than seven meters below the surface. It was divided into 11 strata with an age of 4000 to 3500 years. From the deepest to the 5th. layer the site was a shell mound, used by hunters and gatherers as a dwelling site and for other purposes as described later. 4000 years ago Khok Phanom Di was a mangrove forest very close to the sea. The characteristic plants relicts, sea shells bones of saltwater fish, fishhooks and net sinkers were found in huge numbers. During the first century's the sea retreated and came back, so that maritime conditions alternated with estuary and inland condition and vice versa . The findings were in accordance with the environmental change. The last layers show an pure inland character. Thoday Khok Phanom Di is 22 km away from the Gulf of Siam.The prehistory of this part of Southeast Asia is until now only poorly understood.
The excavation at Khok Phanom Di helped to make this picture more clear because of two remarkable aspects:
1. The sheer number of graves found, the good condition most skeletons were in and the rich grave goods that were unparalleled for this area. For two strata the archaeologist even tried to set up genealogies. Most people had Anemia and died often in their twenties. There was a trend from high infant to high child mortality.
2.The high number of pottery and potsherds. Analysts divided the pottery into four ceramic periods.
Most ceramics were produced by pressing an anvil against the inside and beating against the outside with a wooden tool. During the last phase around 3500 years before, Khok Phanom Di was used as a workshop for ceramics. Potters were mostly women, as we can see from their grave goods.
Literature:
B.A.Vincent et al. The Excavation of Khok Phnom Di a Prehistoric Site in Central Thailand.
Volume VI The Pottery, other ceramic Materials and their Cultura Role.
London 2004
Charles Higham. Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia.
Bangkok 2002
Charles Higham, รัชนี ทศรัตน์. สยามดึกดำบรรพ์ ยุคกอนประวัติศาสตร์ถึงสมัยสุโขทัย (old Siam from prehistoric time to the period of Sukhothai)
กรุงเทพฯ 1998
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