The Caves Of Western Central Thailand

Volume 3 of The Caves of Thailand covers the western and central provinces of Chainat, Kampheng Phet, Kanchanaburi, Lopburi, Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Sawan, Phetchabun, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Saraburi, Suphanburi, Tak and Uthai Thani. This region has Thailand's longest cave and many other long and deep caves. Over 1,450 caves, rock shelters, stream sinks, resurgences and other sites of speleological interest are fully detailed, supported by 247 surveys and a bibliography with over 510 references. There is also an outline of the caving history of the region.

Habitat loss and degradation are currently the main anthropogenic causes of species extinctions. The root cause is human overpopulation. This unique volume provides, for the very first time, a comprehensive overview of all threatened and recently extinct mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes within the context of their locations and habitats. The approach takes a systematic examination of each biogeographic realm and region of the world, both terrestrial and marine, but with a particular emphasis on geographic features such as mountains, islands, and coral reefs. It reveals patterns useful in biodiversity conservation, helps to put it all into perspective, and ultimately serves as both a baseline from which to compare subsequent developments as well as a standardization of the way threatened species are studied.

Volume 1 of The Caves of Thailand covers the eastern and north-eastern provinces of Amnat Charoen, Bueng Kan, Buriram, Chachoengsao, Chaiyaphum, Chanthaburi, Chonburi, Kalasin, Khon Kaen, Loei, Mahasarakham, Mukdahan, Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Phanom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nong Bua LamPhu, Nong Khai, Prachinburi, Rayong, Roi Et, Sa Kaeo, Sakon Nakhon, Sisaket, Surin, Trat, Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani and Yasothon. Over 1,100 caves, rock shelters, stream sinks, resurgences and other sites of speleological interest are fully detailed, supported by 78 surveys and a bibliography with over 200 references.

This volume offers a baseline of information on what is known of earthenware across Southeast Asia and aims to provide new understandings of subjects including the origins of the prehistoric tripod vessels of the Malayan Peninsula and the role of earthenware from a kiln site in southern Thailand.

A modern, comprehensive compilation of more than 7,000 entries covering themes, concepts, and discoveries in archaeology written in nontechnical language and tailored to meet the needs of professionals, students and general readers. The main subject areas include artifacts; branches of archaeology, chronology; culture; features; flora and fauna; geography; geology; language; people; related fields; sites; structures; techniques and methods; terms and theories; and tools.

The Handbook of East and Southeast Asian Archaeology focuses on the material culture and lifeways of the peoples of prehistoric and early historic East and Southeast Asia; their origins, behavior and identities as well as their biological, linguistic and cultural differences and commonalities. Emphasis is placed upon the interpretation of material culture to illuminate and explain social processes and relationships as well as behavior, technology, patterns and mechanisms of long-term change and chronology, in addition to the intellectual history of archaeology as a discipline in this diverse region. The Handbook augments archaeologically-focused chapters contributed by regional scholars by providing histories of research and intellectual traditions, and by maintaining a broadly comparative perspective. Archaeologically-derived data are emphasized with text-based documentary information, provided to complement interpretations of material culture. The Handbook is not restricted to art historical or purely descriptive perspectives; its geographical coverage includes the modern nation-states of China, Mongolia, Far Eastern Russia, North and South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and East Timor.

This book is one of a series of more than 20 volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986, attempting to bring together not only archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, as well as academics from contingent disciplines, but also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. This volume develops a new approach to plant exploitation and early agriculture in a worldwide comparative context. It modifies the conceptual dichotomy between "hunter-gatherers" and "farmers", viewing human exploitation of plant resources as a global evolutionary process which incorporated the beginnings of cultivation and crop domestication. The studies throughout the book come from a worldwide range of geographical contexts, from the Andes to China and from Australia to the Upper Mid-West of North America. This work is of interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, botanists and geographers. Originally published 1989.

"Southeast Asia is one of the most significant regions in the world for tracing human prehistory over a period of 2 million years. Migrations from the African homeland saw settlement by Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis. Anatomically Modern Humans reached Southeast Asia at least 60,000 years ago to establish a hunter-gatherer tradition, adapting as climatic change saw sea levels fluctuate by over 100 metres. From about 2000 BC, settlement was affected by successive innovations that took place to the north and west. The first rice and millet farmers came by riverine and coastal routes to integrate with indigenous hunters. A millennium later, knowledge of bronze casting penetrated along similar pathways. Copper mines were identified, and metals were exchanged over hundreds of kilometres as elites commanded access to this new material. This Bronze Age ended with the rise of a maritime exchange network that circulated new ideas, religions and artefacts with adjacent areas of present-day India and China. Port cities were founded as knowledge of iron forging rapidly spread, as did exotic ornaments fashioned from glass, carnelian, gold and silver. In the Mekong Delta, these developments led to an early transition into the state known as Funan. However, the transition to early states in inland regions arose as a sharp decline in monsoon rains stimulated an agricultural revolution involving permanent ploughed rice fields. These twin developments illuminate how the great early kingdoms of Angkor, Champa and Central Thailand came to be, a vital stage in understanding the roots of modern states"--