The Tam Hang Rockshelter is a karst cave with Middle Pleistocene, Late Pleistocene and early Holocene occupations, located in the Annamitic mountains of Hua Pan Province in Laos, about 300 km north of Vientiane.
The original investigations in the 1930s yielded no excavation report (although formal publication of the results were completed) and all of the archaeological material has been lost, with the exception of human skeletal material. The Middle Pleistocene site included giant tapirs, Stegodon, pandas and orangutans. Two isolated molars and a partial subadult skull were reported by excavator Fromaget as being similar to Zhoukoudian Homo erectus. In what were apparently Late Pleistocene contexts, Fromaget found 17 human skeletons between 1.5 and 2 meters below the modern surface; one was intact enough to be radiocarbon dated, and returned a date of 15,700 BP.
2003 Archaeological Investigations at Tam Hang
New investigations in 2003 did not identify additional Middle Pleistocene deposits, but clarified the upper levels. A paleontological investigation concluded in 2007 revealed additional information about Middle Pleistocene fossil fauna, but did not identify additional human (or ancestral human) remains.
- Layer A - Organic
- Layer B - Spindle whorls
- Layer C - sterile conglomerate
- Layer D - Pottery
- Layer E - Transition
- Layer F - Lithics, human skeletons, ~15,700 BP
Two main cultural layers at Tam Hang include a Neolithic occupation (Layer D) and a Paleolithic occupation (Layer F), separated by a mixed layer. The Neolithic levels are primarily characterized by earthenware pottery with cord-marked and incised designs, similar to design styles found at Spirit Cave in Thailand and Samrong Sen in Cambodia. The Paleolithic occupation is composed of local quartzite, scrapers, bifaces and transitional handaxes similar to those found in Hoabinhian tradition sites.
Tam Hang was discovered in the 1930s and excavated in 1934 by Jacques Fromaget and the Geological Service of Indochina. Excavations were conducted in 2003 by an international team led by Fabrice Demeter and Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Hoabinhian, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Bacon A-M, Duringer P, Antoine P-O, Demeter F, Shackelford L, Sayavongkhamdy T, Sichanthongtip P, Khamdalavong P, Nokhamaomphu S, Sysuphanh V et al. The Middle Pleistocene mammalian fauna from Tam Hang karstic deposit, northern Laos: New data and evolutionary hypothesis. Quaternary International In Press, Corrected Proof.
Demeter F, Sayavongkhamdy T, Patole-Edoumba E, Coupey A-S, Bacon A-M, De Vos J, Tougard C, Bouasisengpaseuth B, Sichanthongtip P, and Duringer P. 2009. Tam Hang Rockshelter: Preliminary Study of a Prehistoric Site in Northern Laos. Asian Perspectives 48(2):291-308.
Schepartz LA, Miller-Antonio S, and Bakken DA. 2000. Upland Resources and the Early Palaeolithic Occupation of Southern China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma. World Archaeology 32(1):1-13.
