ABSTRACT This osteobiography explores the life history of an adolescent who lived during the early‐mid Bronze Age (c. 1000–700 bce ) and was buried at Nyaung'gan, a site in north‐central Myanmar. Burial 3b had multiple skeletal lesions, and their bones were covered in well‐remodeled subperiosteal new bone. A differential diagnosis was undertaken to evaluate the etiology of the lesions and potential co‐morbidity. The lesions observed have different underlying mechanisms, and while most represent reactive biological responses to trauma and disease, a circular cranial lesion with remodeled margins is more consistent with intentional trepanation than a natural biological process. The findings suggest that 3b had survived a significant traumatic cranial injury earlier in childhood and was suffering from a dislocated temporomandibular joint and possible co‐morbid vitamin D deficiency‐related osteomalacia. It is cautiously suggested that 3b survived a subsequent trepanation performed to alleviate symptoms of their condition. Drawing on bioarchaeological approaches to past caregiving, we consider the consequences of these on 3b and how they were cared for, providing unique insight into social dynamics and community care in ancient Myanmar.

Hundreds of large stone vessels can be found dispersed across the Xieng Khouang Plateau in northern Laos. Despite nearly a century of research, their purpose remains uncertain.Here, the authors report on the excavation of the exceptionally large Jar 1 at Site 75, which contains a collective mortuary assemblage of secondary interments. The disarticulated remains of at least 37 individuals hint at the jars' function within a complex funerary sequence, with direct radiocarbon dating indicating a prolonged period of mortuary activity c. cal AD 890-1160, which was a time of increasing regional interaction and mobility in Southeast Asia.

Les profils d’âge au décès des individus dans les cimetières sont couramment utilisés pour étudier indirectement la santé et les fluctuations démographiques dans les études bioarchéologiques. Dans cet article, nous examinons un vaste ensemble de données comprenant 18 sites bien datés de Thaïlande, du Viêt Nam, du Cambodge et du Myanmar, allant du Néolithique à l’âge du Fer, afin d’étudier les tendances liées à l’âge. Nous remettons en question l’hypothèse selon laquelle ces schémas sont uniquement dus à la démographie sous-jacente, à des fouilles incomplètes ou à la préservation sélective de certains squelettes. Nous soutenons que les anomalies liées à l’âge sont liées, au moins en partie, aux dimensions funéraires et sociales de ces sites. En utilisant des profils d’âge au décès, nous démontrons que la sélection basée sur l’âge participe au comportement funéraire global d’une culture donnée, bien que d’autres influences, telles que les fluctuations démographiques et les maladies, puissent jouer un rôle déterminant dans des lieux donnés et à des périodes différentes.

The origins of agriculture have been a focal point of interest in Southeast Asia because of the profound influence domestication of cereal crops had on the ancient inhabitants of the region. Historically, an emphasis has been placed on the movement of farmers from China into Southeast Asia during the Neolithic, however, the origin of agriculture in Myanmar remains unknown. Recently, stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses have provided insight into the subsistence practices of two prehistoric communities, Oakaie 1 and Nyaung’gan, living in north-central Myanmar during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, ca. 1300 − 700 BCE, but lacked the temporal resolution to identify any changes in the intensification of agriculture. Here, we report new C and O stable isotope analysis of individuals from Oakaie 1, and the UNESCO World Heritage complex of Halin excavated between 2017 and 2020. With a longer chronological sequence —dating between ca. 2700 BCE and 1300 CE— Halin provides the opportunity to examine diachronic changes in these practices. The results suggest individuals from Myanmar had a mixed subsistence economy focused on C3/C4 resources during the late Neolithic to Bronze Age and a less variable subsistence focused on C3 resources in the Iron Age, possibly associated with the intensification of wet rice agriculture and changes in water management practices. Situated in north-central Myanmar on the edge of mainland Southeast Asia, we suggest that southwest China, with a subsistence economy of rice and millet, played a role in the movement of this mixed farming strategy into Myanmar.

This study examines patterns of human mobility between two archaeological sites in north-central Myanmar during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (late 2nd to early 1st millennium BC). By analysing strontium isotope ratios in an interindividual as well as an intraindividual approach, we reveal that individual mobility was more pronounced during the Neolithic period (larger range of strontium isotope ratios), likely linked to the exploitation of a broader subsistence area. In contrast, the Bronze Age shows a shift towards smaller mobility, with the majority of individuals exhibiting local strontium isotopic compositions. Notably, a small number of individuals with distinct strontium isotopic signatures were associated with unique funerary practices. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to subsistence strategies and cultural transformations between the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. This research offers valuable insights into mobility, subsistence, and social dynamics in late prehistoric Myanmar, contributing to broader discussions within the contexts of Mainland Southeast Asia and southern China.

For nearly a century, questions have remained as to the purpose and age of the Plain of Jars in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Scholars have generally argued that these megaliths served a mortuary function, either as symbolic monuments or receptacles for the dead. However, due to a paucity of mortuary evidence associated with the jars, it has been difficult to conclusively argue either way. Aside from small amounts of cremated human bone fragments found within a limited number of jars, to date no substantive human burials have been found inside a stone jar across this vast megalithic landscape. Additionally, the stone jars are thought to date to the Southeast Asian Iron Age, between ca. 500 BCE-500 CE, with ritual activity continuing into the 13th century CE. This paper provides the first substantial evidence that the jars were used to contain the deceased for either primary or secondary burials during the 9th to 12th century CE.

Myanmar is located within an important geographic corridor of prehistoric demographic and technological exchange, yet relatively few archaeological sites have been securely dated. Here, the authors present a new radiocarbon chronology for Halin, a UNESCO-listed complex in the north-central Sagaing Division of Myanmar, which contributes to the generation of nuanced regional chronologies and to improving the temporal resolution of Southeast Asia more generally. Discussion of 94 radiocarbon determinates, together with site stratigraphy and pottery traditions, provides a chronological sequence from the early third millennium BC to the early second millennium AD. Corroboration of the beginning of this sequence would place Halin as the oldest currently dated Neolithic site in Mainland Southeast Asia and would provide support for the two-layer model of Neolithic migration.

This paper aims to re-examine the dietary practices of individuals buried at Sigatoka Sand Dunes site (Fiji) in Burial Ground 1 excavated by Simon Best in 1987 and 1988 using two approaches and a reassessment of their archaeological, bioarchaeological and chronological frame. First, stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis was applied to document dietary changes between childhood and adulthood using an intra-individual approach on paired bone-tooth. Second, the potential adaptation of the individuals to their environment was evaluated through regional and temporal comparisons using inter-individual bone analysis. Ten AMS radiocarbon dates were measured directly on human bone collagen samples, placing the series in a range of approximately 600 years covering the middle of the first millennium CE (1,888 to 1,272 cal BP). δ13C and δ15N ratios were measured on bone and tooth collagen samples from 38 adult individuals. The results show that δ15N values from tooth are higher than those s from bone while bone and tooth δ13C values are similar, except for females. Fifteen individuals were included in an intra-individual analysis based on paired bone and tooth samples, which revealed six dietary patterns distinguished by a differential dietary intake of marine resources and resources at different trophic levels. These highlight sex-specific differences not related to mortuary practices but to daily life activities, supporting the hypothesis of a sexual division of labour. Compared to other Southwest Pacific series, Sigatoka diets show a specific trend towards marine food consumption that supports the hypothesis of a relative food self-sufficiency requiring no interactions with other groups.

Historical phenomena often have prehistoric precedents; with this paper we investigate the potential for archaeometallurgical analyses and networked data processing to elucidate the progenitors of the Southwest Silk Road in Mainland Southeast Asia and southern China. We present original microstructural, elemental and lead isotope data for 40 archaeological copper-base metal samples, mostly from the UNESCO-listed site of Halin, and lead isotope data for 24 geological copper-mineral samples, also from Myanmar. We combined these data with existing datasets (N = 98 total) and compared them to the 1000+ sample late prehistoric archaeometallurgical database available from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan. Lead isotope data, contextualized for alloy, find location and date, were interpreted manually for intra-site, inter-site and inter-regional consistency, which hint at significant multi-scalar connectivity from the late second millennium bc. To test this interpretation statistically, the archaeological lead isotope data were then processed using regionally adapted production-derived consistency parameters. Complex networks analysis using the Leiden community detection algorithm established groups of artefacts sharing lead isotopic consistency. Introducing the geographic component allowed for the identification of communities of sites with consistent assemblages. The four major communities were consistent with the manually interpreted exchange networks and suggest southern sections of the Southwest Silk Road were active in the late second millennium bc.

Southeast Asia is becoming a region of increasing interest in discussions of past migration, the origins of agri-culture, and past impacts of human land-use change on environments. Myanmar, situated at a geographic and cultural crossroads between East, South and Mainland Southeast Asia, is potentially a critical region for exploring these themes. However, direct data relating to subsistence in the region has been lacking. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to tooth enamel from humans and associated fauna to examine the subsis-tence economy of two communities from Myanmar, Oakaie and Nyaung'gan, spanning the transitional period from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age (ca. 1300-700BC). Situated within the broader regional and local environmental context, our data demonstrate the 813C values of the individuals from the communities of Oakaie and Nyaung'gan are significantly higher, and the 818O values are significantly lower, than individuals from the other sites in Southeast Asia, however, neither are significantly different to the Chinese sites and they overlap broadly with individuals from Mayutian in Southern Yunnan Province. These findings provide a unique insight into the subsistence economy of the ancient inhabitants of the Central Dry Zone of Myanmar.

The long period spanning the Neolithic to the Metal Age is still poorly understood in the Thai-Malay peninsula (TMP), and current interpretations rely on limited data from a large region and a few dates obtained mainly from inland cave sites. There has yet to be any published research on estuarine and coastal contexts for this period. In 2017 The French Archaeological Mission in Peninsular Thailand carried out an excavation at Wang Duan, near Prachuap Khiri Kan on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, in order to start to fill this gap and to investigate coastal groups in the upper part of the TMP. The aim of the investigation was to study the evolution of coastal groups in relation to their involvement in exchange networks both along and across the TMP. The investigations identified traces of coastal and estuarine occupation characterized by ceramics of slightly different types and by the notable absence of human or animal bones. Occupation of these scattered sites took place during a prehistoric period that roughly corresponds to the early and late Neolithic period (corresponding elsewhere in Mainland Southeast Asia to the Bronze Age). The evolution of the ceramics and parallels with other assemblages in Thailand suggest contact during the first part of the first millennium BCE, and engagement in regional networks. This engagement appears to have led to changes in culinary (and possibly also funerary) practices in the area.