Contact
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.