Ban Chieng

Refers to the period of activity of a culture tied to a village and mortuary site in northeast Thailand, in the province of Udon Thani, discovered in 1966. Dating the Ban Chiang cultural tradition has been controversial. Excavations in 1974 and 1975 showed that the site was occupied for thousands of years. The first thermoluminescence dating indicated the earliest dates to be 4420-3400 BCE, but later radiocarbon dating indicated the earliest grave was about 2100 BCE, the latest about 200 CE. These dates remain inconclusive.