The archaeological site of Ban Non Wat is a cemetery, used by Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age people of the Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand between about 2100 BC and 200 BC. The site, excavated over the past five years by University of Otago professor Charles Higham, under the auspices of Earthwatch, provides a glimpse into the prehistory of the Angkor civilization, the great civilization of southeast Asia centered in what is now Thailand and Cambodia between about 800 and 1300 AD. This report written by Professor Higham describes what he and his crew have found at Ban Non Wat and what the excavations say about the prehistory of this remarkable site. The photograph is from an elite Bronze Age burial at Ban Non Wat, Thailand. The shell beads on this crouched burial are of a type that is not found elsewhere in Thailand. Courtesy Charles Higham (c)2006.
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