An Ethnoarchaeological Study on Salt-Fermented Fish in the Upper Mun River Valley, Northeast Thailand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/aff.23267Keywords:
Fermented fish, salt, ethnoarchaeologyfoodways, Northeast ThailandAbstract
Salt-fermented fish is a staple food item in the traditional diets of Northeast Thailand. Rural households make fermented fish by using local salt resources to preserve seasonal fish supplies, allowing them to ferment and store surplus fish for the dry season. Evidence suggests that this food preservation strategy predates modern dietary practices, and was important in the prehistoric foodways of Northeast Thailand. Using ethnoarchaeological methods, we examine and compare contemporary fermented-fish production, which relies heavily on locally made salt, with archaeological data for these same prehistoric food items and industries. Ethnographic data is compared to archaeological data from the site of Ban Non Wat and the greater Upper Mun River Valley of Northeast Thailand during the Iron Age, which demonstrates a significant increase in the procurement and production of fish and salt resources, and rice cultivation, during the 1st millennium AD. It was also a period of significant social and environmental change, with a marked climatic shift towards distinct wet and dry seasons favoring the exploitation of and reliance on seasonal supplies of fish and salt, as is done today. From this evidence, we establish a correlation between ancient and modern fish and salt production, procurement, preparation, preservation, and consumption practices.
References
Aymonier, Etienne. 2000 [1895]. Isan Travels: Northeast Thailand’s Economy in 1883–1884. Trans. by W. E. J. Tips. Bangkok: White Lotus Press.
Bayard, Donn, Pisit Charoenwongsa and Somsude Rutnin. 1985. “Excavations at Non Chai, Northeastern Thailand 1977–1978.” Asian Perspectives 25(1): 13–61.
Becker, Gary S. 1965. “A Theory of the Allocation of Time.” Economic Journal 75(299): 493–517. https://doi.org/10.2307/2228949
Boyd, William E. and Nigal Chang. 2010. “Integrating Social and Environmental Change in Prehistory: A Discussion of the Role of Landscape as a Heuristic in Defining Prehistoric Possibilities in NE Thailand.” In Terra Australis 21: Altered Ecologies – Fire, Climate and Human Influence on Terrestrial Landscapes, edited by Simon G. Haberle, Janelle Stevenson and Matthew Prebble, 273–297. Canberra: ANU EPress. https://doi.org/10.22459/TA32.11.2010.15
Boyd, William E. and Robert J. McGrath. 2001. “The Geoarchaeology of the Prehistoric Ditched Sites of the Upper Mae Nam Mun Valley, NE Thailand, III: Late Holocene Vegetation History.” Paleogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 171(3–4): 307–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-0182(01)00251-6
Castillo, Christina, Charles F. W. Higham, Katie Miller, Nigel Chang, Katerina Douka, Thomas F. G. Higham and Dorian Q. Fuller. 2018. “Social Responses to Climate Change in Iron Age North-East Thailand: New Archaeobotanical Evidence.” Antiquity 92(365): 1274–1291. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.198
Cawte, Hayden and Bhadravarma Bongsasip. 2009. “Ethnoarchaeological Investigations of Household Salt Making in Northeast Thailand: A Scaler Hypothesis for Prehistoric Production.” Paper presented at the 19th Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Congress, Hanoi.
Charoenwongsa, Pisit and Donn Bayard. 1983. “Non Chai: New Dates on Metalworking and Trade from Northeastern Thailand.” Current Anthropology 24(4): 521–523. https://doi.org/10.1086/203041
Cort, Louise Allison. 2018. “Making Pots in Mainland Southeast Asia.” Paper presented at the Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TS4T25YksE
Cort, Louise Allison and Leedom Lefferts. 2013. “Present-Day Village-Based Production of Earthenware and Stoneware in Mainland Southeast Asia.” https://www.iseas.edu.sg/centres/nalanda-sriwijaya-centre/research-tools/sea-ark/pottery-papers/. Accessed January 20, 2021.
Culloty, Dorothy. 2010. Food from Northern Laos: The Boat Landing Cookbook. New Zealand: Galangal Press.
Duke, Belinda, Allison Carter and Nigel Chang. 2010. “The Excavation of Iron Age Working Floors and Small-Scale Industry at Ban Non Wat, Thailand.” Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 20: 123–130. https://doi.org/10.5334/pia.345
Duke, Belinda, Nigel J. Chang, Ian Moffat and Wayne Morris. 2016. “The Invisible Moats of the Mun River Valley, NE Thailand: The Examination of Water Management Devices at Mounded Sites through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).” Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology 40: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.7152/jipa.v40i0.14895
El Tabakh, Mohamed, B. Charlotte Schreiber, Cherdsak Utha-Aroon, Lee Coshell and John K. Warren. 1998. “Diagenetic Origin of Basal Anhydrite in the Cretaceous Maha Sarakham Salt: Khorat Plateau, NE Thailand.” Sedimentology 45: 579–594. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3091.1998.00162.x
Evans, Caitlin Violet. 2015. “Sites, Survey, and Ceramics: A GIS-Based Approach to Modeling Ancient Settlement Patterns in the Upper Mun River, Northeast Thailand.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, James Cook University, Australia.
Feinman, Gary M. 1999. “Rethinking Our Assumptions: Economic Specialization at the Household Scale in Ancient Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico.” In Pottery and People, edited by James M. Skibo and Gary M. Feinman, 81–98. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Grainger, Sally. 2021. The Story of Garum: Fermented Fish Sauce and Salted Fish in the Ancient World. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315269825
Halliwell, Alisha, Andrea Yankowski and Nigel Chang. 2016. “Gendered Labor in Pottery and Salt Production in Northeast Thailand.” In Gendered Labor in Specialized Economies: Archaeological Perspectives on Male and Female Work, edited by Sophie E. Kelly and Traci Arden, 117–157. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607324836.c005
Hansen, Bent T., Klaus Wemmer, Monique Eckhardt, Prinya Putthapiban and San Assavapatchara. 2016. “Isotope Dating of the Potash and Rock Salt Deposit at Bamnet Narong, NE-Thailand.” Open Journal of Geology 6: 875–894. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojg.2016.68067
Harris, Peter. 2007. Zhou Daguan: A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
Hauman, Cathleen. 2012. “What’s Cooking? An Archaeological Residue Analysis of Ceramics from Thailand.” Unpublished MA thesis, University of Otago, New Zealand.
Hein, Don. 2008. “Ceramic Kiln Lineages in Mainland Southeast Asia.” In Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia: Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, edited by Louise Allison Cort, George Ashley Williams IV and David P. Rehfuss. https://publications.asia.si.edu/publications/seaceramics/resources/essay.php?id=40. Accessed October 13, 2022.
Hendrickson, Mitch. 2010. “Historic Routes to Angkor: Development of the Khmer Road System (Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries AD) in Mainland Southeast Asia.” Antiquity 84(324): 480–496. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00066722
———. 2011. “A Transport Geographic Perspective on Travel and Communication in Angkorian Southeast Asia (Ninth to Fifteenth century AD).” World Archaeology 43(3): 444–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2011.605846
Higham, Charles F. W. 1977. “The Prehistory of the Southern Khorat Plateau with Particular Reference to Roi Et Province.” In Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia Vol. 3, edited by Gert-Jan Bartstra and Willem Arnold Casparie, 103–141. Rotterdam: A.D. Balkema.
———. 1989. The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2002. Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia. Bangkok: River Books Press.
———. 2012. “The Male, Adult, Infant and Child Burials of the Bronze Age Period 5.” In The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor Volume 5: The Excavations of Ban Non Wat, Part Three: The Bronze Age, edited by Charles F. W. Higham and Ampham Kijngam, 417–444. Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, Thailand.
———. 2014. Early Mainland Southeast Asia: From First Human to Angkor. Bangkok: River Books Press.
———. 2020. “Ban Chiang: The Metal Remains in Regional Context. A Review Essay.” Journal of the Siam Society 108(1): 161–194.
Higham, Charles F. W. and Ampham Kijngam (eds.). 2012. The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor Volume 6: The Excavations of Ban Non Wat, Part Four: The Iron Age, Summary and Conclusions. Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, Thailand.
Higham, Charles F. W., Bryan F. J. Manly, Rachanie Thosarat, Hallie R. Buckley, Nigel Chang, Sian E. Halcrow, Stacey Ward, Dougald J. W. O’Reilly, Louise G. Shewan and Kate Domett. 2019. “Environmental and Social Change in Northeast Thailand during the Iron Age.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 29(4): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774319000192
Higham, Charles F. W. and Fiorella Rispoli. 2014. “The Mun Valley and Central Thailand in prehistory: integrating two cultural sequences.” Open Archaeology 1: 2–28. https://doi.org/10.2478/opar-2014-0002
Ishige, Naomichi. 1993. “Cultural Aspects of Fermented Fish Products in Asia.” In Fish Fermentation Technology, edited by Cherl-Ho Lee, Keith H. Steinkraus and P. J. Alan Reilly, 13–32. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
Kanthilatha, Nelum, William Boyd, Ashley Dowell, Alice Mann, Nigel Chang, Hans Wohlmuth and Jeff Parr. 2014. “Identification of Preserved Fatty Acids in Archaeological Floor Sediments from Prehistoric Sites at Ban Non Wat and Nong Hua Raet in Northeast Thailand Using Gas Chromatography.” Journal of Archaeological Science 46: 353–362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.03.033
LeGrand, Karen, Buntong Borarin and Glenn M. Young. 2020. “Tradition and Fermentation Science of prohok, an Ethnic Fermented Fish Product of Cambodia.” Journal of Ethnic Foods 7(12). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42779-019-0027-1
Lefferts, Leedom. 2005. “Sticky Rice, Fermented Fish, and the Course of a Kingdom: The Politics of Food in Northeast Thailand.” Asian Studies Review 29: 247–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357820500270136
Lustig, Eileen. 2009. “Power and Pragmatism in the Political Economy of Angkor.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Sydney, Australia.
McNeill, Judith R. and David J. Welch. 1991. “Regional and Interregional Interaction on the Korat Plateau.” Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 10: 327–340. https://doi.org/10.7152/bippa.v10i0.11323
Milne-Home, William A., R. Last, Boun Souk, Rungruang Lertsirivorakul and B. Oondara. 2004. “Groundwater Flow, Salinity Processes and Irrigation Development in the Champone District, Lao PDR.” In Proceedings of the 2nd Asian Regional Conference, Moama, Australia, 14–17 March 2004. Moama: International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).
Mitsuchi, Masanori, Pichai Wichaidit and Saeree Jeungnijnirund. 1986. Outline of Soils in the Northeast Plateau, Thailand: Their Characteristics and Constraints. Khon Kaen: Siriphan Offset Khon Kaen.
Nitta, Eiji. 1997. “Iron-Smelting and Salt-Making Industries in Northeast Thailand.” Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 16: 153–160. https://doi.org/10.7152/bippa.v16i0.11656
O’Reilly, Dougald J. W. 2014. “Increasing Complexity and the Political Economy Model: A Consideration of Iron Age Moated Sites in Thailand.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35: 297–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2014.06.007
Phithakpol, Bulan. 1993. “Fish Fermentation Technology in Thailand.” In Fish Fermentation Technology, edited by Cherl-Ho Lee, Keith H. Steinkruas and P. J. Alan Reilly, 155–166. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
Praicharnjit, Sayan. 2011. Archaeology of Ceramics in Lãn Nã, Northern Siam. Bangkok: Samaphun Publishing.
Rivett, Paul. 1999. “Community Landscapes in Northeast Thailand.” Unpublished MA thesis, University of Otago, New Zealand.
Rivett, Paul and Charles F. W. Higham. 2007. “The Archaeology of Salt Production.” In The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor Volume 2: The Excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao, edited by Charles F. W. Higham, Ampham Kijngam and Sarah Talbot, 589–593. Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, Thailand.
Ruddle, Kenneth and Naomichi Ishige. 2010. “On the Origins, Diffusion and Cultural Context of Fermented Fish Products in Asia.” In Globalization, Food and Social Identities in the Asia Pacific Region, edited by James Farrer. Tokyo: Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture. http://icc.fla.sophia.ac.jp/global%20food%20papers/html/ruddle_ishige.html. Accessed October 13, 2022.
Ruddle, Kenneth. 1993. “The Availability and Supply of Fish for Fermentation in Southeast Asia.” In Fish Fermentation Technology, edited by Cherl-Ho Lee, Keith H. Steinkruas and P.J. Alan Reilly, 45–84. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
Sangjindavong, Mathana, Pranisa Chuapoehuk, Jiraporn Runglerdkriangkrai, Wanwimol Klaypradit and Daungdoen Vareevanich. 2008. “Fermented Fish Product (Pla-Ra) from Marine Fish and Preservation.” Kasetsart Journal (Nat Sci) 136: 129–136.
Scott, Glen and Dougald J. W. O’Reilly. 2015. “Rainfall and Circular Moated Sites in North-East Thailand.” Antiquity 89: 1125–1138. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2015.130
Somnasang, Prapimporn and Geraldine Moreno-Black. 2000. “Knowing, Gathering and Eating: Knowledge and Attitudes about Wild Food in an Isan Village, Northeast Thailand.” Journal of Ethnobiology 20(2): 198–216.
Songsiri, Walailak. 1996. “Ceramic Kiln Sites in the Songkhram River Basin”. Trans. by Robert Retka. Muang Boran 22(4). https://archive.asia.si.edu/publications/seaceramics/resources/walailak-songsiri.php. Accessed October 13, 2022.
Tamang, Jyoti Prakash and Delwen Samuel. 2010. “Dietary Cultures and Antiquity of Fermented Foods.” In Fermented Foods and Beverages of the World, edited by Jyoti Prakash Tamang and Kasipathy Kailasapathy, 1–40. New York: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/EBK1420094954-c1
Thosarat, Rachanie. 2007. “The Fish Remains.” In The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor Volume 2: The Excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao, edited by Charles F. W. Higham, Ampham Kijngam and Sarah Talbot, 537–40. Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, Thailand.
———. 2010. “The Faunal Remains – Fish and Shellfish.” In The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor Volume 4: The Excavation of Ban Non Wat: The Neolithic Occupation, edited by Charles F. W. Higham and Ampham Kijngam, 69–188. Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, Thailand.
———. 2012. “The Fish Remains.” In The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor Volume 6: The Excavation of Ban Non Wat: The Iron Age, Summary and Conclusions, edited by Charles F.W. Higham and Ampham Kijngam, 43–56. Bangkok: The Fine Arts Department, Thailand.
Udomthawee, Kotchanipha, Kasem Chunkao, Achara Phanurat and Khunnaphat Nakhonchom. 2012. “Protein, Calcium and Phosphorus Composition of Fermented Fish in the Lower Mekong Basin.” Chiang Mai Journal of Sciences 39(2): 327–335.
Van Esterik, Penny. 2008. Food Culture in Southeast Asia. Westportt: Greenwood Press.
Welch, David J. 1998. “Archaeology of Northeast Thailand in Relation to the Pre-Khmer and Khmer Historical Record.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 2: 205–233.
Yankowski, Andrea and Puangthip Kerdsap. 2013. “Salt-Making in Northeast Thailand: An Ethnoarchaeological Study in Tambon Phan Song Khram, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Northeast Thailand.” Silipakorn University Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts 13(1): 231–252.
