Investigating the Risk of Violence During the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age in Northeast Thailand (c. 1400 B.C. – A.D. 800)

The prehistoric period c. 4000 BC – 800 AD (Early Neolithic to the Late Iron Age) is an important period of cultural, environmental, and technological transformation in Southeast Asia. This study investigated the relationship between violent trauma and social inequality within the realm of cultural and environmental change over time, when communities were developing more labour-intensive wet-rice agricultural techniques, metallurgy, and complex social organisation. Skeletal trauma analysis and the archaeological context from seven prehistoric sites in northeast Thailand was used to evaluate the prevalence of interpersonal violence and its relationship to social inequalities and health disparities between the sexes or other social groups. Cranial injuries and evidence of weapon proliferation in the Iron Age suggested that more individuals were experiencing interpersonal violence at a time when population densities meant greater competition for resources and trade relations with outside groups increased the potential for conflict. However social inequality never seemed to reach a markedly high level in this region and the development of social stratification and a transition to an agriculture-based economy did not have the same detriment to health and physiological wellbeing as was reported in other regions of the world.