Case Studies:Case study 27

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Floodplain sites of the Mun River valley in northeast Thailand
R. J. McGrath, W. E. Boyd and R. T. Bush

Abstract
On the Mun River valley floodplain in northeastern Thailand are mounds of occupation debris dating to c. 500BC to AD500. Encircling many of these mounds are human-constructed channels interpreted as being for defence, aquaculture, agriculture, or water management. This case study relates these archaeological sites to the former river drainage patterns in order to shed light on aspects of lifestyle, economy, and industry. Particle size was analysed by wet sieving, dry sieving and X-ray particle size analysis. Geochemical analysis included reaction (pH), electrical conductivity (EC); total carbon, sulphur and nitrogen; and inorganic carbon. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the concentration of acid extractable metals; and acid extractable salts were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). The mound sediments are more similar to the floodplain sediments, than the human-constructed channels, with similar particle-size distributions, and elevated magnetic susceptibility values. These similarities suggest that the source of much of the mound-building material is from the surrounding floodplain.

Click on the link below to open a pdf with a more detailed summary of this project.

[[media:Case study 27.pdf|Floodplain sites of the Mun River valley in northeast Thailand]]

The full article is McGrath, R. J., W. E. Boyd and R. T. Bush (in press) Establishing the palaeohydrological context of the Iron Age floodplain sites of the Mun River valley, NE Thailand Geoarchaeology: An International Journal

Keywords: Thailand, Mun River, Mounds, Moats, Iron Age, alluvial, particle size analysis, geochemical analysis, plasma-mass spectrometry, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, magnetic susceptibility, X-ray diffraction

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