[Talk] Fifteen Years of Archaeobotanical Invesitgations in Mainland Southeast Asia: What Have We Learned?

Readers may be interested in this online talk by Cristina Castillo Cobo on 16 April (that’s midnight, 17 April in Bangkok time). Zoom details in the link below.

Archaeobotanical investigations in Southeast Asia have been limited by the belief that preservation is an issue in tropical climates. However, in the past fifteen years, the retrieval of botanical macroremains in many sites across mainland Southeast Asia has been successful. The results provide a deeper understanding of the emergence of rice agriculture, diets in prehistoric and historic periods, ecological reconstructions of the area, farming systems and the adaptation of people to changing climatic conditions.

This presentation will elucidate key findings. It will present data from different sites where Dr. Cobo has worked in Southeast Asia that are shaping the understanding of mainland Southeast Asia. Cobo includes her collaborative work in disentangling the origins and domestication of rice, a case study in Northeast Thailand that shows an agricultural transition from dryland to wetland rice cultivation happening during a period of increasing social complexity and aridification and new work conducted in Angkor that sheds light on the lives of the non-elite and on urban horticulture.

Source: Spring 2021 – Center For Southeast Asian Studies – UW–Madison