Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon

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). Aggrandisers and the first copper-base metallurgy in Southeast Asia. Antiquity. Advance online publication. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.11 Journal - Research Article

Pryce, T. O., Pradier, B., Favereau, A., Naing Oo, U. S., Le Meur, C., Thwe Oo, D. K., … Higham, C. F. W., & Higham, T. F. G. (2024). Late prehistoric and early historic chronology of Myanmar: A four-millennia sequence from Halin. Antiquity. Advance online publication. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2023.190 Journal - Research Article

Higham, C. F. W. (2023). The Bronze Age and Southeast Asia. Old World. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1163/26670755-20230004 Journal - Research Article

Higham, C. (2023). [Review of the book The Angkorian World]. Antiquity. Advance online publication. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2023.112 Journal - Research Other

Higham, C. F. W. (2023). Early states of Mainland Southeast Asia. In Reference module in social sciences. (Online ed.) Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-323-90799-6.00154-3 Chapter in Book - Research

Back to top