| Abstract: |
Noen U-Loke is a large Iron Age settlement located in the upper Mun River floodplain of Northeast Thailand. Excavations in 1996–7 revealed an occupation and mortuary sequence beginning in the Bronze Age and then spanning the entire Iron Age, from ca. 450 BC to AD 500. The third of four mortuary phases stood out for the great wealth of mortuary offerings and associated rituals that accompanied the dead. This was manifested in clay-lined coffins in which the corpse was covered in rice, wearing multiple bronze ornaments, carnelian, agate, glass, gold and silver jewelry and iron knives. One man was found with a socketed iron ploughshare. The published radiocarbon chronology for this site came from 24 charcoal determinations. In this paper we present a further 11 dates from stratified rice grains, and consider their implications in relation to other Iron Age settlements that lie in close proximity.
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