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ContactCharles Higham_large

Room 2C23
Tel 64 3 479 8750
Email charles.higham@otago.ac.nz

Research Interests

The prehistory of mainland Southeast Asia; the implications of archaeogenetics and historic linguistics.

Projects

I have two current research projects.

The first centres on the prehistoric Iron Age site of Non Ban Jak, in Northeast Thailand. Co-directed with Associate Professor Hallie Buckley, this focuses on the origins of social inequality during the later Iron Age, that laid the foundations for the origins of early states. Non Ban Jak is unique in providing not only the remains of houses, but the well-preserved skeletons of those who lived there between 200-600 AD. Our research is supported by the Marsden Fund.

My second project involves collaboration with Professor T. Higham and Dr K. Douka of Oxford and Dr F. Petchey of Waikato University, and involves the dating of human bones, shells and plant remains from key prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia to provide a firm chronological framework for interpreting later Southeast Asian prehistory.
 This is also supported by the Marsden Fund, and results have involved the redating of Non Nok Tha, Ban Chiang, Ban Na Di, Ban Lum Khao and several other prehistoric sites from Myanmar, Vietnam and China.

Publications

Higham, C. (2024). The settlement of mainland Southeast Asia By anatomically modern humans. In T. Ueki, G. R. Summerhayes & P. Hiscock (Eds.), In the footsteps of our ancestors: Following Homo sapiens into Asia and Oceania. (pp. 38-68). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003427483-3 Chapter in Book - Research

Higham, C. F. W. (2024). Mortuary rituals and social change from the Neolithic to the Iron Age in Thailand. Asian Archaeology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s41826-024-00094-8 Journal - Research Article

Eerkens, J. W., Higham, C., & Spero, H. J. (2024). Isotopic and provenance analysis of Neolithic and Bronze Age shell disc beads from Ban Non Wat, north‐east Thailand. Antiquity, 98(400), 905-919. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.86 Journal - Research Article

Jie, F., Yingfu, L., Changcheng, H., Yang, W., Fan, Y., Yunsheng, Z., … Higham, C., & Yuniu, L. (2024). Reassessing Bronze Age metallurgy in Upland Southwest China on the basis of excavations at Longbohe, Yunnan. Journal of World Prehistory. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s10963-024-09186-w Journal - Research Article

Fu, J., Li, Y., Hu, C., Pan, G., Yang, X., He, Q., Higham, C., & Li, Y. (2024). Southbound transmission of metallurgy: New excavations at Jicha in the Hengduan Mountains, Yunnan. Antiquity. Advance online publication. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.70 Journal - Research Article

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