圣水牛的家养/野生属性初步研究

水牛是现在中国南方稻作区的重要家畜之一。从更新世时期到全新世时期,中国南、北地区的考古遗址皆有水牛遗骸出土。本文从这些出土的水牛遗骸入手,综合其他学者的意见,对广泛出土于全新世时期遗址的圣水牛的家养/野生属性进行探讨,并提出了自己的观点。     

Ban Chiang and Northeast Thailand; the palaeoenvironment and economy

Beginning with a detailed presentation of the faunal spectra from Ban Chiang and related sites in Northeast Thailand, this essay reconstructs the palaeoenvironment during the period 3500 BC to the end of the prehistoric period. The evidence from the freshwater molluscs found in prehistoric layers suggests that the first occupants of Ban Chiang encountered a habitat with permanent lakes and clear, slow moving streams. Since the lakes contracted in the dry season, there were ideal conditions for practising wet swidden agriculture. From c. 1600 BC, the presence of water buffalo and associated changes in the faunal spectrum suggests the inception of wet rice cultivation. Such agricultural intensification, it is held, follows population pressure and accounts for subsequent settlement in the more arid plains of Thailand.