| Abstract: |
This dissertation utilizes circular earthworks of eastern Cambodia as a case study for understanding the nature of regional prehistoric adaptations in Mainland Southeast Asia. One of the primary aims was to empirically document and explain the nature of site community among a subset of circular archaeological sites. Previous archaeological investigation of earthworks: focused explicitly on site and artifact placement along the time continuum of Southeast Asian prehistory. Little attention was given to the geographical and environmental setting of the sites, their structural characteristics, or in compiling a comprehensive description of associated artifact remains. The case study investigates Neolithic circular villages of a previously designated “Mimotian” culture that existed across a discrete c. 55 kilometer swath of eastern Cambodia/southwestern Vietnam between the early 3<super>rd</super> millennium-early 1<super>st</super> millennium B.C. Research shows that the earthworks were constructed at advantageous points on the landscape to exploit a range of resources. The research demonstrates that the earthworks were occupied by a community that practiced swidden agriculture as their primary subsistence strategy, with perhaps some flood farming of rice in the alluvial plain and hunting and horticulture in the uplands. Diversifying subsistence and utilizing local resources was one of several ways that allowed earthwork occupants to successfully occupy the region on a permanent basis for c. 2000 years. The present research provides multi-level empirical evidence to argue that the prehistoric circular earthworks comprised a discrete prehistoric social community or grouping across a dynamic ecological niche of Southeast Asia. This research addresses the fundamental premise that these sites represent the archaeological manifestation of reciprocal cultural processes promoting group cohesion and identity. This cohesion and identity in turn conferred adaptive success for the earthwork community. Adaptive success conferred repetition in settlement construction, location, artifact types, and resource acquisition over time. This is the archaeological manifestation of cultural affiliation. These cultural redundancies are suggestively related to the organizational role of each site within the cultural system. Changing adaptive strategies were developed and shared, with an apparent attempt to focus strategies on the group rather than individuals.
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