Hoabinhian
Hòa Bình culture ( Vietnamese: Văn Hòa Bình Hóa ) is the name of a Mesolithic hunter- gatherer society of the early Holocene. It existed from 12,000 to 10,000 BC in Vietnam. Traces of this culture were also found in other countries in Southeast Asia. The people of the Hoabinhian lived mostly in caves and under rock roofs ( Abri ) and subsisted on plants and animals. In addition, the stone tools that can be assigned to these hunters and gatherers, Hòa Binh culture are called. It is one-sided abgeschuppte rubble devices ( pebble tools), which date from the period 10000-2000 BC and are often referred to as Sumatralith.
Development of terminology
The name Hoabinhien in 1927 influenced by the French archaeologist Madeleine Colani for an ethnic group that has operated in the Province Hòa Bình North Vietnam within a limited period of natural economy. Colani excavated 54 find sites with similar legacies in the provinces of Thanh Hoa, Quang Binh and Hoa Binh especially in North Vietnam. Agreement was reached on the first congress of prehistorians of the Far East on a definition ( in translation ):
" (It is ) a culture with tools that are generally scaled in consequence of various primitive processing methods. It is characterized by tools that have often worked only on one side: Stone hammers, roughly triangular capped tools, washers, short axes and almond-shaped artifacts, as well as a considerable number of tools made of bone. "
" Hoabinhian I: - only discount appliances, rather large and coarse. Hoabinhian II: slightly smaller and finer - crafted devices, associated with protoneolithischen tools. Hoabinhian III: - even smaller devices, mainly haircuts with secondary processing, no protoneolithischen tools ".
The originally proposed by Colani typology was so complicated that, for example, the 82 artifacts of Sao Dong had to be divided into 28 different types, or could. After Matthews had 1964 Hoabinhian - rock roof investigated in Sai Yok in Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, he noted that the artifacts in terms of their size and shape into each other and thus do not represent real types. After Chester Gorman had in 1970 evaluated the findings from the Phimaen Cave, he presented a more detailed definition of the Hoabinhian ago, for example, the presence of one-sided shingled tools from pebbles and a characteristic composition of the food residues ( crustaceans, fish, and small to medium sized mammals) included.
1994 was found at a congress in Hanoi to the view used today that Hoabinhian is more of an industry as a culture or a techno - complex and on the basis of scree devices (not pebbles ) makes its appearance.
Dissemination
Hoabinhian was initially investigated in Vietnam, where it is also the most find sites, but more than 120 This is reflected in all probability merely the more intensive exploration of Vietnam in relation to other areas of Southeast Asia resist. In Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Sumatra Hoabinhian - sites were found.
Important sites is the following caves and rock shelters
- Xom Trai, Lang Vanh and Hang Muoi, all in Hoa Binh in northern Vietnam
- Gua Cha in Kelantan, Malaysia
- Phimaen Cave in Mae Hong Son, Thailand
- Long Kamnan cave in Kanchanaburi, Thailand
- Long Rongrien Cave in Krabi, Thailand
In addition to this core area, however, make archaeologists, such as Johannes Moser, also isolated camp in Nepal, southern China, Taiwan and Australia.
The question of the origins of agriculture in Southeast Asia
Gorman was the remains of numerous plants found in the Phimaen Cave, after the earth finely sieved. Sun and A. almonds, betel nuts, field beans, peas, gourds, water chestnuts and fruits of walnut light appeared. This raised the hypothesis that Hoabinhian goes hand in hand with the beginning of agriculture in Southeast Asia. However, it was shown that distinguish the varieties of all of these plants not occurring in nature, has a culture that is not occurred.
The finds in the cave Phimaen prove, however, that the Hoabinhian people have has a complex knowledge of the plant world and these have been able to take advantage of.