The highlands of Northwestern Thailand are scattered with dozens of cave that house some highly odd human burials from the ancient past . They consist of turgid wooden coffins – often several meter retentive and craft from a undivided tree diagram tree trunk – that are mount above the floor on wooden stilts .
The 40 or so burial sites are the work of a mysterious Iron Age civilisation that inhabited the Mae Hong Son province in northern Thailand between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago .
In a Modern study , archeologists carried out a genetic profile of 33 ancient people buried at five Log Coffin culture sites and describe back their ancestries , illuminating the complex genetic landscape of mainland South East Asia after the Stone Age .
The long log coffins are fashioned out of a single tree trunk.Image credit: © Selina Carlhoff
Previous studies found on individual individuals or individual site indicated that this finish were relate to farmers from the Yangtze River valley in southern China and the local Hòabìnhian Orion - gather smart set .
This in style study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology provides a deep insight into that relationship by looking at lots of individuals from legion sites . Their analysis suggests that , in fact , the farmer side of their genome can be divided further into two group : one connected to the Yangtze River Valley and another to the Yellow River Valley in China .
“ Our event lead to the emerging picture of a complex familial landscape painting in post - Neolithic mainland Southeast Asia ; however , this study provide successful transmitted results from sample in limestone caves from the northwestern highlands ofThailand . Future sketch of samples retrieved from heart-to-heart - strain archaeological sites in the lowlands seem promise . If possible , they can provide additional insight into the genetic chronicle of Mainland Southeast Asia , ” Wibhu Kutanan , subject field author and life scientist from Naresuan University in Thailand , say in astatement .
Culturally speaking , it ’s strong to know the precise significance of ancient Thailand ’s A-one - long log coffins . Why did an Iron Age culture go to such great lengths to raise the farsighted truck onto stilts ? Was it a virtual concern or did it bear some spiritual time value ?
The new field of study does n’t dig too profoundly into these interrogation , it simply notes : “ Coffins were make out from a individual tree and feature distinct carvings at the head and ft final stage , which may ponder societal belief , the condition of the at rest , the acquisition of the coffin ’s maker , or indicate family or kinship group burial ground . ”
However , it is evident that other ancient culture from mainland Southeast Asia have alike traditions . Over 170 boat - forge coffinshave been recoveredfrom 44 dissimilar archeologic situation in nearbyVietnam , which are wide attribute to the Dong Son polish that lived in the region from 1000 BCE until the first century CE .
The cultural relics from Vietnam are typically put in the same traveling bag asEurope ’s sauceboat burialsin which the deceased , usually those who have a in high spirits societal status or warrior credentials , are laid to rest in the Cordell Hull of a ship as if the dead are being send on a ocean trip towards the afterlife .
As establish by the young subject , there was a vast amount of migration and intermingling in southeast Asia over 2,000 years ago . give this interconnectivity , it ’s no surprise that it was n’t just genetic information that was passed on , but also ethnical entropy .
The subject is print in the journalNature Communications .
