A New Technological Analysis of Hoabinhian Stone Artifacts from Vietnam and its Implications for Cultural Homogeneity and Variability between Mainland Southeast Asia and South China

Abstract

The cultural or technological variability and homogeneity of lithic industries during the transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene in mainland Southeast Asia (SEA) and South China have yet to be clearly deciphered. Using typology as the main method and criterion for comparing lithic industries has failed to reveal either the character of lithic industries or their homogeneity and variability on a regional scale. This article presents a new technological analysis of Hoabinhian stone artifacts preserved in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and compares it with a typical Hoabinhian techno-complex from Laang Spean Cave in Cambodia and a representative cobble-tool industry from Luobidong on Hainan Island, South China. The comparisons suggest that remarkable differences in operational sequence existed not only between South China and the Hoabinhian of SEA, but also between different Hoabinhian assemblages of SEA. This study thus represents an important step forward for deciphering the homogeneity and variability of lithic industries on the larger regional scale of SEA and South China.